It operates in 124 municipalities with more than 3000 members: this is how the “ Clan del Golfo ”, the largest criminal group in Colombia, works.

Currently, the paramilitary bloc “ Clan del Golfo ” carries out operations in 124 municipalities of the country, in the departments of Antioquia, Córdoba, Meta, Nariño, Chocó, Norte de Santander, Magdalena, Bolívar, Atlántico and Cesar. Among these departments where they have the greatest power are in the Lower Cauca Antioquia and Córdoba.

According to a report by the national police and published by the newspaper El Tiempo, this paramilitary group has about 3,260 members; among them, 1,461 armed men. For the “ Clan del Golfo ” there are two forms of command, there are those who act independently in certain regions of the country and others who are under the block of “ Otoniel ”, which operates in a unified way and although due to the Coups d’etat authorities lost men, as a result of these acts their level of violence increased.

The way they obtain income is through drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion of the civilian population, and arms trafficking, and they have also forged alliances with other illegal groups to maintain their capital. They also carried out actions such as asking for an award for members of the Force Publique. This made them responsible for the deaths of several policemen and soldiers.

According to a member of the police force, whoever does not authorize any of these acts of the block “Otoniel” becomes directly his enemy. “Anyone who opposes this end is his enemy to death”, said the officer to El Tiempo. In addition, he added that the order given by the top leader was to step up his actions to take control of the coca crops, in order to maintain cocaine production and shipping routes.

“Here we live in constant anxiety. Our young people must join either side or else they will be murdered with their families. Brochures with threats of “social cleansing” are constant, which has generated great displacements. You have to pay a “security tax”, which is nothing more than extortion. Do not ask me to give you the exact number, because they can identify me, but I assure you that out of 10 homicides recorded in my municipality last year, 7 or 8 were at the hands of these gentlemen (‘clan’ or ‘ Caparros’) ”, one of the mayors of the lower Cauca Antioqueño told the same newspaper.

In the case of the department of Chocó, it finds itself in a similar situation. The paramilitary members of the “Clan del Golfo” are in confrontation with the guerrillas of the ELN for this territory. HTo date, only the illegal far-right group has been responsible for the death of an indigenous woman, some descendants of Africans, and forced displacement.

Among these interests is the cultivation of the coca leaf in the department of Chocó. “The upper, middle and lower Baudito has become the preferred route for drug traffickers to transport coca to the Pacific”, claimed a local authority. We must remember that in this part of the country, almost historically, this guerrilla war has been established.

The same source reported that the Embera Indians, originally from Chocó, are confined by the clashes and fear that one of the two armed groups will try to attack their lives. This has been happening since the harvests of The coca is transported through the mangroves that extend to the coast of the San Juan River, the territory where these indigenous communities are found.

According to official figures, Since the signing of the Peace Agreement, the ‘Clan del Golfo’ is responsible 24 murders of social leaders and 14 ex-combatants in the process of being reincorporated.

According to information from El Tiempo newspaper, here are some of the people killed at the hands of paramilitary members: On October 22, 2020, Miguel Emiro Pérez, a social leader from the Bas Cauca of Antiquity who promoted the substitution of coca crops, was assassinated. On January 1 of this year, the murder of Yolanda Zabalo, 22, a former combatant; and her 17-year-old sister.

“They kill social leaders and members of community action committees for refusing to deal with drug trafficking issues. They see them as natural enemies and the easiest way is to silence them, ”said a member of the Catholic Church in the same medium.

Faced with this situation of extreme violence that the country has been going through for several years, the new The Minister of Defense Diego Molano and the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, announced a few days ago that all measures must be taken to put an end to the “Clan del Golfo”.

In an interview the Defense Minister gave to El Tiempo, he reported that in the last assessment carried out by the military and police, it was concluded that the “Gulf clan” had registered a reduction of 20%. of its armed component.

This decrease, according to Molano, is due to arrests and people executed in combat. For example, the victims were 10 men from the command line such as “Marihuano”, “Pueblo” or “Plástico”, which contributed to a weakening.

Finally, Diego Molano affirmed that, for the moment, this paramilitary group has no experienced leaders, and that this has led to internal struggles “for power, cargo, money and excesses, in particular linked to the theft of money between heads of sub-structures. “.

In addition, the director of the national police, General Jorge Luis Vargas, said that one of the signs of the disorder that this armed group is going through is the constant killing of members of the public forces.

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