Permitted crimes: Criminal law-making and legacies of intertwinement in Colombia

This article contributes to efforts to complexifying discussions of state-crime relations and security governance in Latin America. A political economy approach to the state, combined with an understanding of illegal economy as an integral, if obscured part of global economy, allows conceptualizing such relations beyond state capture and even regimes of permission. Based on qualitative interviews, executive and judicial documents and leaked data collected in Colombia between 2009 and 2024, I can show that in the 2000s, Colombian paramilitaries were not just tolerated but became actively involved in law-making, and legacies of this intertwinement continue to shape politics today. This nuances accounts of security governance arrangements between multiple collective actors with the converging aim of enabling capital accumulation.