Hybrid Security Governance in the Colombian-Venezuelan border: a micro-geopolitical analysis of the legal-illegal management of people and territories

• Grant number: 24/22167-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - Brazil
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Antonio Duarte Villa
• Grantee: Rafael Antonio Duarte Villa
• Visiting researcher: Thiago Moreira de Souza Rodrigues
• Visiting researcher institution: Instituto De Estudos Estratégicos/Inest/Uff, Brazil
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research project aims to map, describe, and analyze the forms of governance (de facto government) exercised by illegal armed groups (IAGs) involved in illicit economic activities in the border area of Cúcuta (Colombia) and San Antonio de Táchira (Venezuela). This region records one of the most intense flows of transnational illegal activities in Latin America (drug trafficking, smuggling, human trafficking, etc.), concentrating hybrid forms of management over territories, populations, and commercial and social activities. Various groups with different levels of financial and armed power, as well as varying degrees of legitimacy among the local population, operate in this area. The region is a dynamic and vibrant border zone, with an estimated population of 900,000 people. Years of border closure due to political-ideological disputes between Colombia and Venezuela, combined with changes in the political economy of drug trafficking in northern South America, have fostered new forms of territorial occupation and control over illegal flows in the region, attracting larger groups such as Tren de Aragua (VEN), Clan del Golfo (COL), and the Sinaloa Cartel (MEX). The objective of this research is to map local IAGs to identify how they manage the territories under their control and the forms of interaction with other IAGs, civil society organizations, international organizations, and representatives of state security forces on both sides of the border. The research will seek to test the theoretical frameworks already available in the international literature on criminal governance, including the concept of hybrid criminal governance developed by Prof. Duarte Villa's group (USP). Additionally, the theoretical perspective of micro-geopolitics-which combines theoretical elements of Foucaultian biopolitics and Critical Geopolitics-will be tested to analyze the balance and competition between state and non-state armed actors. The research methods will combine field research techniques and critical literature review. In the field, semi-structured interviews will be conducted to map the IAGs and reconstruct their governance tactics based on information provided by key actors operating in the region: social leaders, members of security forces, journalists, academics, members of non-governmental organizations, and, if possible, members of IAGs. Using the information collected and in dialogue with the specialized literature, the research will seek to describe the form-or forms-of local criminal governance, enabling comparisons with other border regions studied by Prof. Villa's project. The hypothesis is that regions with intense illegal activity, particularly in border areas, do not constitute "ungoverned regions," but rather areas where different armed actors exercise dimensions of a "de facto government," constructing categories of legitimacy and coercion that, paradoxically, both compete with and complement one another to govern economic activities. This dynamic directly impacts social life, the exercise and preservation of fundamental rights of the local population, and the objective and subjective dimensions of ordinary citizens' lives.Mapping and understanding the operations of IAGs in the proposed region has the potential to enhance analytical tools for understanding how IAGs operate in border areas, including Brazilian ones, such as the northern and southern triple borders and the northern Amazonian Arc. The research aims to provide more precise instruments for understanding and contributing to the development of public policies to combat cross-border illegal activities while safeguarding the fundamental rights of populations living in affected border zones. Furthermore, the project seeks to contribute to Prof. Villa's initiative, adding to the effort of empirical research and the development of original theoretical frameworks on criminal governance in Latin American border zones. (AU)