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Bogota (AFP) – President Gustavo Petro suspended this Sunday, March 19, the ceasefire that he had held since December 31 with the Clan del Golfo, the largest drug trafficking gang in Colombia, for attacks on the civilian population.
“I have ordered the Public Force to reactivate all military operations against the Clan del Golfo,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on his Twitter account.
“We will not allow them to continue sowing anxiety and terror in the communities,” he added.
According to the Government, the organization has been behind the intimidation and attacks against residents in the northwest of the country for more than two weeks.
On the brink of the New Year, Petro announced a bilateral truce with the Clan del Golfo, the ELN guerrilla, some factions of the FARC dissidents, which did not accept the 2016 peace agreement, and a paramilitary group from the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.
The measure was the first step to sit down to negotiate with the main illegal armed actors in the country, which still suffers from violence despite the disarmament of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
However, the government accuses the Clan del Golfo of being behind demonstrations by illegal miners that since March 2 have terrorized the inhabitants of Bajo Cauca, in the department of Antioquia, in the west of the country.
After the Army and the Police destroyed machinery that the miners use to extract illegal gold, they closed roads and attacked a town hall and a bank in the municipality of Caucasia.
The violent protests continue despite the dialogues between the demonstrators and the Government.
Reversal of “Total Peace”
The suspension of the ceasefire is one of the biggest setbacks of “Total Peace”, the policy with which the first leftist president of Colombia wants to end the conflict.
With this intention, the president, in power since August 7, has been holding peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) since November and will do the same with the Central General Staff, the most important group of dissidents in the FARC.
The opposition and some experts point out that the public force was handcuffed before the criminal gangs and the rebels due to the presidential order to stop the hostilities.
According to Petro, the Clan prioritized the profit generated by illegal gold over peace approaches. He also assured that they were taking advantage of the ceasefire to strengthen their presence in the illegal mines.
Extraction of the metal generates almost the same profits for illegal organizations as drug trafficking, according to the Armed Forces.
Gulf Clan Onslaught
According to official calculations, the Clan del Golfo exports some 700 tons of drugs from Colombia per year, between 30 and 60% of total drug exports.
According to the Ministry of Defense, cocaine seizures decreased from 167 tons in January 2022 to 40 tons in the same month this year.
The guerrillas and paramilitaries allied with drug traffickers do not allow the armed conflict that Colombia has been experiencing for almost six decades to end.
The top leader of the Clan del Golfo, “Otoniel”, was captured in October 2021 and extradited to the United States the following May.
Following his arrest, members of the Clan murdered at least 20 police officers in an onslaught they called a “pistol plan.”
Alias ”Siopas”, one of the men closest to “Otoniel” and his presumed heir, was found dead on a highway in early March, apparently the victim of his own associates.
with AFP
