2023-10-20 07:01:00
The presence of the ELN, the Central General Staff of the FARC and the Gulf Clan in a narrow territory, turned the south of Bolívar into a time bomb that has its inhabitants overwhelmed, despite the fact that all these groups have said they are committed with peace.
This is why the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, had no choice but to convene a security council this Wednesday with the leadership of the Armed Forces, political and social leaders of the region.
There he heard firsthand a cascade of complaints from the community. Representatives of the mining sector, for example, denounced that neither the Army nor the Police patrol the area, and that a helicopter passes sporadically, while criminals move freely.
Human rights defenders counted that nearly 2,000 inhabitants have had to move from the rural areas of several municipalities, since a violent process of expansion of the Gulf Clan into territories with a guerrilla presence began in September.
One of the most critical events occurred between September 21 and 24, when 260 farmers had to flee from Santa Rosa del Sur to Segovia, in Antioquia.
Since then, dozens of families have left their plots every week, in smaller groups, for fear of fighting between armed factions.
After the security council, Minister Velásquez “emphasized the importance of carrying out offensive operations against the Gulf Clan, regardless of their negotiating status with the Government,” according to a statement from his portfolio.
Although there are three groups involved in the instability of the region, the ELN and the Central General Staff of the FARC have bilateral ceasefires with the Government, which is why Velásquez ordered all batteries to be directed against the Clan.
But why are there so many disputes over the south of Bolívar, one of the poorest areas of the country?
Crime map
According to military sources, the south of Bolívar is a strategic crossroads, which connects the departments of Córdoba, Antioquia and Santander. This gives access, to whoever masters it, to the routes to the Atlantic Coast and Magdalena Medio, important for the transport of drugs; and also to the gold deposits of Bajo Cauca and Northeast Antioquia.
A lucrative drug trafficking enclave is also located there, in the Taracué ravine basin, in the municipality of San Pablo, with 1,986 hectares planted with coca, according to the latest UN illicit crop monitoring (2022).
Because it is an enclave, at this point not only is it cultivated, but in the surrounding areas they manufacture cocaine in clandestine laboratories and ship it through waterways and sidewalks. The presence of the three largest armed groups in the country indicates that production is at full capacity.
Proof of this is a finding reported by the CTI and the Army this Wednesday, with support from the DEA. According to Alberto Acevedo, director of the CTI, in a mountainous area of Santa Rosa del Sur they found a megalaboratory made up of seven rustic structures, inside which there were 4.6 tons of cocaine, 744 kilos of coca paste and 2 tons of chemical precursors, among other inputs. The alkaloid, which had been negotiated with Central American cartels, had a value close to 5.7 million dollars.
With so many treasures at stake, it is difficult for any of the three illegal groups to give ground. And in the midst of them, the population waits for help from the Government.
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ANNEX: DISTRIBUTION OF ARMED GROUPS IN THE AREA
– In the south of Bolívar there is a union of forces between the ELN and the Central General Staff of the FARC, to defend their territories from the incursion of a common enemy: the Gulf Clan.
– According to judicial sources, the ELN deploys several structures of the Darío Ramírez Castro war front in the area: the Héroes de Santa Rosa, Sur-Sur and Resistencia Guamucó fronts, and the José Antonio Galán mobile column.
– For its part, the Central General Staff has the 4th front there, which it is reinforcing with members of the 36th front from the Northeast of Antioquia.
– The Clan del Golfo has influence in that region with the Roberto Vargas Gutiérrez bloc, which deploys four fronts: Rubén Darío Ávila, Julio Vargas, Jorge Arboleda and Héroes del Caribe.
– In total, adding the three groups, there are about 1,500 armed combatants in the south of Bolívar.
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