Cartel shuts down dozens of towns over extradition
BOGOTA, Colombia — The Gulf Clan drug cartel shut down dozens of towns in northern Colombia for four days in reaction to its leader being extradited to the U.S. for trial. It warned that anyone who disobeyed the stayat-home order risked being shot or having their vehicle burned.
Businesses closed, schools stayed shut, intercity bus service was suspended and a professional soccer match couldn’t be played after one of the teams refused to travel to the game.
The Gulf Clan’s “armed stoppage” decree was issued Thursday in pamphlets and WhatsApp messages following the extradition of Dairo Antonio Usuga — also known as Otoniel — to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking charges.
The action appeared to be winding down Monday, according to reports from human rights groups and the Roman Catholic Church, but underlined that the cartel is still a major security threat despite Otoniel’s highly publicized arrest last year.
Analysts said the cartel’s ability to shut down multiple towns highlighted shortcomings in the government’s long fight against drug trafficking groups.
Camilo Gonzalez, the president of Colombian think tank Indepaz, said: “Drug trafficking will not end with the capture of Otoniel. When they captured Pablo Escobar, they said drug trafficking would be over, and today there is more of it than back then.”
According to Colombia’s Ministry of Defense, three civilians and three police officers were killed during the four days of the shutdown and more than 180 cars were burned for apparently violating the cartel’s order, mostly on rural highways.
Even worse numbers were reported by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a tribunal created following the 2016 peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group.
The tribunal said 24 civilians were slain in areas covered by the Gulf Clan’s stoppage, which it said forced people to stay home in 138 municipalities in the northern provinces of Choco, Sucre, Bolivar, Antioquia and Cordoba.
The Gulf Clan, which also calls itself the Gaitanista Self Defense Forces of Colombia, was founded in the first decade of this century by leaders of paramilitary groups that refused to join a demobilization agreement in which other groups took part.
Otoniel, the Gulf Clan’s most recent leader, had long been a fixture on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list.