Colombia’s new narcos set up intricate extortion racket in vacuum left by disbanded Farc

The windows are painted black inside the wooden shack by the river in Guarumu, a tiny village in northern Colombia. The floor is stained heavily with blood and there is a stench of rotting flesh leaking from what used to be the kitchen.

Farmers, shopkeepers and miners are among locals to have been tortured to death here for refusing to pay monthly extortion fees, according to local gang members

“They think they can get away with not paying what they owe. But they can’t. Torture sends a signal that extortion must be paid,” says Oscar, a senior gang member in the Bajo Cauca region, proudly and with slow intent.

In Bajo Cauca, where rival groups compete for control of the region’s lucrative trafficking…