Editor’s Note
This article examines a significant societal development in Colombia. The following analysis provides context and explores the broader implications of this ongoing issue.
**The Emerald War Reignites in Colombia**
Two major figures in the precious stone trade were assassinated within a month in Bogotá by a sniper and an infiltrated hitman. This conflict, which pits two powerful emerald merchant clans against each other, has the feel of a spy novel, notes the Colombian press. But above all, it signals the emergence of a new, even more dangerous criminal organization.
Because in recent years, the Colombian weekly continues, “the blood of emerald merchants has flowed […] in the streets of the most upscale neighborhoods of Bogotá,” where a war with the air of a spy novel is increasingly monopolizing newspaper front pages.
The most recent chapter of this conflict began on August 7, 2024, when a sniper shot and killed businessman Juan Sebastián Aguilar while he was in his fortified apartment, located in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of the capital, reports the daily *El Tiempo*.
But what no one had foreseen was that a sharpshooter was hiding in the mountains opposite the building.
And the response was not long in coming, as, a month later, on September 11, it was Luis Abelardo Triana’s turn to fall under the bullets of a man disguised as a garbage collector, who hid his weapon in a trash bag. A “declaration of war” between two powerful precious stone merchant groups.
