In a five-page letter to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the Gulf Clan, also known as the Colombian Gaitanista Armed Forces (EGC) (formerly the Colombian Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces), issued arrest warrants for several people to authorities. I asked him to take it down. of those commanders. In a letter dated April 23 and published Thursday, the group argues that it is a political group and deserves to participate in negotiations for Petro’s “complete peace” policy. It claims to be not a paramilitary organization, but rather opposes all such groups. The government has not yet formally responded to the letter. A few weeks ago, he called on Gulf states to come to the negotiating table, but he did not recognize them as political entities.
In the document, written in legal rather than political language, Gulf clan leaders say that if the government wants to meet, the group needs to be confident that its leaders will not be arrested. It has said. The group claims these measures interfere with the “personal and legal peace” of the highest political body, the Gulf Clan High Command, and “suspension of the respective arrest warrants and warrants of arrest for extradition purposes.” I’m looking for. of the organization. The bodies include Jesus Avila Villadiego, alias “Chiquito Maro,” the group’s main leader and one of the country’s most wanted criminals.
Most of the letter concerns the group’s argument as to why it meets the state’s requirements to obtain political status, and if the group negotiates terms beyond handing over to the judicial system. This is a necessary position. The Gulf clan claims this is the product of a failed peace deal. The group admits that some of its early members were demobilized from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary group under President Álvaro Uribe, but claims it has had a Gaitanist identity since 2007. ing. The men and women who emerged as an armed group decided to call themselves the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, in homage to Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the most popular leader in Colombian history. […]And they understood that Gaitan’s struggle was precisely their own struggle: the conquest of power for the people,” the illegal group said.
Gulf Clan leaders claim that although the militia receives state support, their group is constantly targeted by the military. In the letter, the Gulf clan claims to have been “attacked in the most intense military and law enforcement operations in the history of combating illegal armed groups.” Rounding out its claim that it meets the requirements for political status, the group has internal regulations and a code of ethics, its members are trained in international humanitarian law, and it has a structure typical of military forces. It is claimed that In short, they are like guerrillas.
Finally, the group refuses to be called drug traffickers, despite the fact that the majority of its income comes from the illegal economy related to cocaine trafficking. “U.S. security sources estimate the Gaitanistas’ annual income at $4.4 billion, roughly equivalent to one month’s worth of Colombian exports,” the International Crisis Group said in a report. “From the beginning, paramilitary groups have formed alliances with drug trafficking networks as a means of generating income and expanding their territorial reach,” the report said. Colombian NGO representative Elizabeth Dickinson said the Gulf Clan is Colombia’s largest illegal armed group, with 6,000 to 7,000 members.
The Gulf family’s letter came a month after President Petro criticized the group in Apartado (Antioquia), the paramilitary flagship region where the Gaitanistas are based. The president bluntly stated at a public event that the group could only expect “collective acceptance of justice,” a path outlined in the “total peace” policy for non-political groups. . Additionally, Petro made the negotiations conditional on the group abandoning some of its illegal businesses. “Dare” [to negotiate] “We must step away from the illegal economy and illegal activities and take on the difficult task of turning this region into a prosperous region,” he said. “[Jorge Eliécer] “Gaitan was a revolutionary, not a drug,” he added.
Francisco Daza, territorial peace and human rights coordinator for the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation (PARES), said the letter comes amid a bloody conflict between the group and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which has a higher profile in the peace process. Point out that it was issued. It is located south of Bolivar. These clashes had a severe impact on civilians and forced a delegation from the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace to leave the area. “It seems that the ministry is trying to ease the military actions of public forces against the government. Still, the president does not consider giving political approval to this structure,” Daza said.
The criminal organization’s request coincides with the Colombian government’s recent lifting of arrest warrants for nine members of the Second Marquetalia, one of two dissident groups in the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). are doing. new negotiations.
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