The reprisals of the Colombian criminal cartel of the Clan del Golfo, after the extradition of their leader "Otoniel" to the United States, left at least eight dead, civilians, police and soldiers, announced Monday, May 9, the authorities.
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Since the launch Thursday of an "armed strike" by members of the Clan del Golfo in several towns and rural areas of northern Colombia,
"three civilian homicides have been reported"
, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense.
Three soldiers and two policemen were also killed in this offensive by the criminal group, according to the army.
The latest incident took place on Monday in the municipality of Santa Fe (Antioquia province), where a "humanitarian caravan" escorted by soldiers was the target of an explosive attack.
"A soldier and a member of the national police were killed"
and four other members of the security forces were injured, the military command said in a statement.
Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias Otoniel, 50, Clan leader and Colombia's biggest drug trafficker, was extradited to the United States on Wednesday.
He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to the international cocaine trafficking charges against him.
In retaliation, and in an unprecedented show of force three weeks before the Colombian presidential election, the men of the Clan del Golfo have banned all activity in the areas where they operate, in hundreds of localities in nine of Colombia's 32 provinces, mainly in the north of the country.
Read alsoColombia extradited drug lord “Otoniel” to the United States
Via audio messages relayed on social networks, they terrorize the inhabitants by prohibiting them from moving or engaging in any activity, under penalty of being executed, according to the governor of the province of Sucre, Hector Espinosa.
Drug traffickers, weapons in hand, set fire to at least 190 vehicles, stopped randomly on the roads, including on major roads not far from Medellin, the country's second city.
Faced with the threat, the majority of people in rural areas of the provinces of Antioquia, Choco, Cordoba, Sucre and Bolivar - the most affected departments - preferred to stay at home.
On Monday, conservative President Iván Duque promised a stronger response against the Clan del Golfo, which, according to official estimates, exports between 30 and 60% of the cocaine produced in the country, the world's largest supplier of the drug.
"They will see a deployment that they have never seen against this structure
," said Mr. Duque after a security council in Carepa, in the department of Antioquia (northwest).
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