In Hora20 a debate to analyze in depth the days of confinement and violence that communities and inhabitants of 11 departments of the country have had to experience after the armed strike decreed by the Gulf Clan in which for five days there was harassment, burning of trucks, prohibitions for the population and a criticized response from the national government and the Public Force. Then a look at the tone that the presidential campaign has been taking 20 days after the elections: the attacks, the accusations, the accusations have become the day to day of the political contest.
Barely eight months ago, President Iván Duque announced that with the capture of alias “Otoniel”, top boss of the criminal organization of the Gulf Clan and his subsequent extradition marked the end of this criminal structure that operates mainly in the north of the country and in Urabá. Last week, when the extradition to New York was finally carried out, this organization decreed an armed strike that lasted until Sunday night. An armed strike that generated confinement in 173 municipalities, shortages, obstruction to mobility, roadblocks and up to 24 homicides, according to figures from the Investigation and Accusation Unit of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. The actions of the organization generated affectations in 11 departments of the country, but, above all, it would be demonstrating that the Gulf Clan or the AGC as they also call themselves, would be far from the end.
Given the situation, the call of 19 mayors of affected municipalities and the criticism for the delay in the response of the Public Force, the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, has maintained the thesis that more than blockades and a strike, It is about intimidation and wanting to instill fear, since he considers that the retaliation shows that the blows that have been dealt to the organization have generated a fracture within it. More than 25,000 men were deployed, there were 98 captures, 29 platoons against what the government considers to be “strongholds” of the Clan del Golfo, in addition to a $5 billion reward for the leaders of the organization. Finally, President Duque was present this Monday morning in Carepa, from where he assured that “the deployment that has never been seen against that structure will be seen”, in a strategy that moves along the same lines that has kept the government on security: extradite captured, increase rewards, and focus on high-value targets.
What the experts say
Juan Diego Restrepo, journalist and director of Verdad Abierta, He explained that the Clan del Golfo is a structure with 14 years, “the AGC emerged as a name in October 2008 in Urabá; that was the first armed stoppage when they made themselves known. After that, there have been five armed strikes, the last one in 2016”, he pointed out that its growth occurred after adding all the non-conforming ex-combatants of the AUC in 2008, “the reason for the AGC to be created was not to comply with the AUC and to rearm; that was the founding speech.”
He warned that, in some way, this strike was expected, but he warns that there was no intelligence to contain it, to which he wonders if there was not a political intention. Similarly, he raised how this structure can be maintained and not be touched by the lethal force of the State, “the bishops of Chocó have that answer, they have said that AGC is allied with the Army to combat ELN.”
For Jairo Libreros, lawyer, university professor and expert in security matters, one cannot speak of a single strike, since he believes that there is the Clan del Golfo, which was planned, coordinated and executed in a criminal manner and with apparent success, while the other strike was that of the State, “a strike that did not achieve avoid affecting commercial, social life and in a particular way, it shows that institutional capacity is well below the standard that we believed we had; What the Clan is has not been dimensioned”, he affirmed.
He affirms that today there is not enough capacity to know the movements of this structure, which he considers was strengthened with drug trafficking and illicit arms trafficking. On the other hand, he launched a proposal to dismantle the organization: a subjugation policy in which there is no impunity or denial of justice, but where the structure is destroyed.
Rafael Nieto, former deputy minister of justice, former presidential candidate, lawyer and columnist, He stated that the problem is not one of narrative and although he believes that this government in relation to security has been more of the same as the Santos government, “the Government has complied with the Agreement, the problem is drug trafficking and we have not wanted to assume it, perhaps because we continue in the discussion about the Santos-FARC pact; that is no longer the discussion,” he concluded.
He pointed out that confronting structures such as the Gulf clan is not easy, but he warns that the central point is to accept that the elements that were “agreed” in terms of drug trafficking in the Peace Agreement have not worked.
For Sandra Borda, political scientist and university professor, part of what happened has to do with the reading of the Armed Forces and the government, of what was the result of the agreement, “at the time there were two readings: as a victory against the FARC and occupying the territories. The other option, to insist on history a defeat”. At this point, he commented that if it is believed that it is defeat and not victory, it is understandable that there is tunnel vision in which they defined dissidence and ELN as the main threat to security and left aside the need to prioritize combat against criminal gangs. .
Faced with this panorama, he wondered, “How do the forces that push a guerrilla and set it in negotiating tabletoday they are not in conditions and they are weak?”, clearly assuring that there are problems of structural deficiency, but warns that the politicization of the Public Force led to the belief that the Clan del Golfo was a lesser evil.
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