A group that leads or participates in a sustained insurgency. Insurgency is a form of political violence in which an armed insurgent group opposes a sovereign government, typically through guerrilla warfare. Insurgency groups can vary in size, organization and tactics, but all share a fundamental adherence to the idea of achieving a political objective by means of violent overthrow of a regime.
Integrated insurgent groups have well-institutionalized central commands and control over local units. These tend to be the most effective militarily, as they can carefully coordinate strategy and remain disciplined in their use of force even in difficult situations. They are also hard to break down from the outside, though they may be wiped out through decapitation (e.g., the 1990s Taliban) or transformed into a parochial structure through disloyalty from local commanders or a lack of strong ties of information and obligation between members (e.g., the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland).
At its peak, the AUC probably had several thousand hard-core members and an equally large number of sympathizers. It operated primarily in the Antioquia, Cordoba, Sucre, Atlantico, Magdalena, La Guajira, and Bolivar Departments of Colombia, although it had affiliate groups in the coffee region and in Valle del Cauca and Meta departments as well. The AUC financed itself through drug trafficking, which accounted for as much as 70 percent of its operational costs. The AUC is estimated to have had international jihadist backers and links with al-Qa’ida and Jabhat al-Nusra.