The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Petro suspends the ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo

2023-03-20T00:38:53.164Z


The president assures that the organization attacked the police with a rifle and that from now on the public force must act immediately against it


Photograph provided by the Colombian military of soldiers guarding the roads in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia (Colombia), where there has been a mining strike infiltrated by the Clan del Golfo. Military Forces (Fuerzas Militares/EFE)

Gustavo Petro has ordered the immediate suspension of the ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo after an attack against the police was registered.

"We will not allow them to continue sowing anxiety and terror in the communities," wrote the president of Colombia on his Twitter account.

The Government believes that this armed group has continued to engage in the illegal gold business and cocaine trafficking, and that it is behind a violent mining strike in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, a region in northeastern Colombia.

The president's announcement marks the first break with one of the criminal organizations that had embraced total peace, Petro's commitment to negotiate or simultaneously subdue all the country's armed groups.

He envisioned a nation at peace after decades of violence.

The president has been blunt: “As of now there is no ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo.

The public force must act immediately against the structures of this mafia organization”.

I have ordered the Public Force to reactivate all military operations against the Clan del Golfo.

The bilateral cessation with this group outside the law is suspended.

We will not allow them to continue sowing anxiety and terror in the communities.

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 19, 2023

The rupture had been brewing in recent days.

Petro had already acknowledged that the organization did not respect the armistice and that he had infiltrated the mining protest to sow chaos — the Clan del Golfo denied this in a statement.

The Minister of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, said that breaking the dismissal was not on the table, but that anything could happen, as it has finally happened.

The president has had enough of this organization, the heir to paramilitaries, which is also in conflict with the ELN guerrillas and the FARC dissidents.

The rifle attack on the available police force by the gulf clan breaks the ceasefire.



As of this moment there is no ceasefire with the gulf clan.

The public force must act immediately against the structures of the mafia organization.

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 19, 2023

The Gulf Clan's record was not very encouraging.

In the Meta area, they have violently applied what they call social cleansing, which in practice means attacking thieves, drug addicts, and women who practice prostitution.

They install a regime of terror in their territories.

The Ombudsman's Office has documented that he has murdered people accused of being government informers.

A few weeks ago, he appointed some lawyers to establish contacts with the Government.

He wanted a negotiation like that of the ELN, with a table, some agreements, a dialogue.

That was giving him a political character that he doesn't really have.

Petro's government partners asked him not to negotiate with drug traffickers, but to submit them to the law.

The nation's attorney general refused to lift the arrest warrants against the clan's representatives who were going to talk with the authorities.

It will no longer be necessary.

The debate has been settled with a stroke of the pen: no more concessions for the Clan del Golfo.

A rifle attack on the police was the trigger.

Furthermore, the riots at the site of the mining strike have continued.

The governor of Antioquia uploaded videos of trucks and buses on fire to his Twitter account.

“A few minutes ago, at least 4 cargo vehicles and 2 public transport buses were burned on the roads of Bajo Cauca.

TOTAL REPUDIATION of those who insist on sowing anxiety and terror in the face of the offensive of the public force against the ILLEGALS ”, he wrote.

The total peace of Petro has not just started.

Of the four open dialogs, one has been slammed.

The president's warning is clear: "I have ordered the Public Force to reactivate all military operations against the Clan del Golfo."

Petro wants peace, but not at any price.

Subscribe here

to the EL PAÍS newsletter on Colombia and receive all the latest information on the country.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-20

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-19T05:10:53.759Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.