Colombian politician’s ties to far-right paramilitary networks reveal fascist infiltration in electoral politics
Original framing: “Unearthing a Colombian Politician’s Connections to Neo-Nazi Active Club Group” — Bellingcat
Colombia’s paramilitary history traces back to the 1960s, when the U.S. and Colombian elites funded death squads to suppress leftist movements, creating a template for far-right infiltration today. The Active Club’s aesthetic and tactics mirror those of 1980s neo-fascist groups like the *Terrorismo Blanco* in Spain, which also used cultural symbols to normalize violence. The current scandal echoes the 2016 *FARC peace deal* backlash, where paramilitary groups rebranded as political actors to maintain influence.
The Active Club’s infiltration of Colombian politics is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a transnational fascist resurgence, where paramilitary groups operate as hybrid political-military networks, enabled by corporate funding, historical impunity, and algorithmic radicalization.
Colombia’s history of U.S.-backed paramilitarism and land dispossession provides fertile ground for such movements, while Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities bear the brunt of their violence, their resistance often erased by elite media narratives. The Active Club’s use of Viking imagery and graffiti mirrors fascist tactics worldwide, from Brazil’s *300 do Brasil* to the U.S. Proud Boys, revealing a pattern of cultural appropriation and territorial control. Solutions must address the root causes: dismantling paramilitary financing, centering marginalized voices in anti-fascist education, and holding corporate and state enablers accountable. Without systemic intervention, Colombia risks repeating the cycles of violence seen in Rwanda and Bosnia, where paramilitary groups escalated from political infiltration to genocide.