Clan del Golfo shuts down much of Colombia over Otoniel’s extradition to U.S. – The Washington Post
“It makes visible the reality that these areas have been living for many months now, which is a complete political and social control under the Gulf Clan,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst with International Crisis Group.
The cartel is one of the largest employers in the region. While armed strikes are not uncommon in Colombia, the latest action was an unusual show of force in its geographic scope and strength — it paralyzed transportation and commerce in nearly the entire northern half of the country.
It also underscored the country’s failure to implement its 2016 peace accords, which sought in part to tackle violence in rural territories and decrease communities’ reliance on farming coca, the base of cocaine.
The Clan del Golfo was funded between 2006 and 2007 by a former paramilitary leader who was eventually extradited to the United States more than a decade later. Colombia’s paramilitary forces emerged as armed actors — sometimes with the complicity of the country’s armed forces — in the government’s decades-long conflict against the leftist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
The government, criticized for what Colombians said was an inadequate response, deployed additional troops to the affected regions. On Monday, President Iván Duque met with his defense minister and other military and police officials in Antioquia, one of the affected departments.
Around Montería in Córdoba, Soto’s death on Thursday morning was among the first of several killings since the start of the armed strike. Local police officials said they could not confirm the gunmen were members of the Clan del Golfo. But at least one eyewitness, Soto’s nephew, said he heard the men mention the armed strike.
Local restaurants were planning a weekend of parties and special events. Instead, only 10 percent of restaurants in Monteria were open Sunday, said Juan Carlos Rodríguez, head of a Córdoba restaurant and entertainment association.
Arelis Martínez Pacheco rushed her 15-year-old daughter to the hospital Wednesday for treatment of a hernia. She was set to go home by Friday. But by Monday, the family still hadn’t found a way to return home.
After using her last bit of change to buy bread and coffee, Martínez had no money for bus fare. She was still wearing the blue shirt and jeans in which she arrived. Her daughter, Nuris, worried about her older sister, home alone the entire time, and feared the “bad people who won’t let anyone pass” on the roads.