Although guerrilla activity has largely disappeared from Colombia's biggest cities, violence fueled by the cocaine trade continues stronger than ever in the nation's rural areas and appears immune to U.S.-financed moves to block it, the New York Times reported July 27.

Coca cultivation in Colombia saw its first significant increase in four years in 2007, rising 27 percent to a total of 244,634 acres. Colombia's share of worldwide cocaine production has held steady at around 60 percent, and Colombia remains the source of 90 percent of the cocaine used in the United States.

With the emergence of right-wing militias in the mountains of Nariño and the continued strong presence of leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), few observers see a realistic end to a war that has raged for four decades. "If anything, Nariño shows the guerrillas may have lost their chance for victory but not their ability to cause suffering," Nariño governor and former guerrilla Antonio Navarro Wolff said.

Many coca growers in the rural community have managed to elude fumigation efforts by reorganizing large farms into smaller plots that are more difficult to locate by air. There are nearly weekly reports of violence committed by left-wing rebels or right-wing militias in these rural areas, such as the late June murder of four schoolteachers who according to FARC were army informants.

FARC presently collects only about half of the $500 million it earned earlier this decade from taxing coca farmers and coordinating smuggling networks, but that still allows it to operate under a reduced presence, said Bruce Bagley of the University of Miami, an expert on the Andean drug war. Colombia's overall role in the drug trade has remained steady with the emergence of right-wing militias and smaller-scale gangs to replace dismantled drug cartels.

"A few battles won is not a war won," Bagley said. "The FARC and other groups will survive as long as there are safe havens, the flow of drug money and large, remote regions unconnected to the broader economy."