Jorge, a community activist from the conflictive Colombian province of Chocó, was already on his way to the city of Medellín when he heard a piece of news that made him return home.
Paramilitary militiamen in balaclavas and military uniforms erected a series of barricades and declared an “armed strike”, burning vehicles, forcing businesses to close and stopping all traffic.
“There is absolutely no one, because they set fire to any vehicle they find on the highways,” Jorge said, using a false name to avoid reprisals. “It’s total terror.”
Since Thursday, cities, towns and villages in northern Colombia have been shut down by the feared Clan del Golfo drug cartel, in retaliation for the extradition to the United States of its former leader, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, better known as Otoniel.
Otoniel faces a litany of drug charges in the US, as well as more than 120 charges in Colombia, including accusations of murder, illegal recruitment, kidnapping for ransom, sexual abuse of minors, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and drug traffic.
But while prosecutors in New York boasted that the alleged kingpin would finally face justice, Colombians in one part of the country remained hostage to the terror unleashed by his thousands of henchmen.
The militiamen have blocked the main roads and have forbidden everyone to go out, even to buy food.
“Everything has been closed since noon on Thursday, practically all businesses are closed,” said a resident in Apartadó, a city of 200,000 in the Urabá region, where the Clan del Golfo still has territory.
“We don’t know how long this will last. Water and electricity continue to be cut off, there is no transportation, and food is running out. We just have to wait and see what happens.”
Videos shared by residents with The Guardian show that streets normally bustling with commerce were now completely deserted.
“The state has no control here, so at any moment the armed groups can create problems and destabilize the entire region,” said a community leader in Montería, the capital of Córdoba province.
“Entire municipalities are closed, buses have been burned and no one can leave their homes.”
A threatening leaflet in the name of the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) – the name used by the cartel – has been distributed in various locations, indicating that the armed strike will last four days and that the cartel is not responsible for the “consequences that could be unfavourable”. Stores, schools, and government buildings were painted with the AGC insignia.
“We are the prisoners, not Otoniel,” said another resident of a town in the region. “Everyone is confined to their homes and nothing, not even an ambulance, is moving. This is silent chaos.”
Otoniel’s capture was hailed by US and Colombian authorities as a major blow against drug traffickers, but police say two of his lieutenants, known as Gonzalito and Chiquito Malo, took command of the militia, which is believed to have up to 2,000 fighters. and in addition to drug trafficking, it is also dedicated to human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and the forced recruitment of children.
Colombian authorities have responded to the violence by launching an “anti-terrorist policy”, aimed primarily at lifting roadblocks. “The instruction to the commanders is to deploy all their capabilities, and above all to be on the offensive against these criminals,” said a police spokesman on Friday morning.
Analysts say the terror in northern Colombia is a predictable consequence of the country’s hardline “war on drugs” tactics, which often overlook the civilian populations living among the traffickers.
“This is a perfect demonstration of what the problem is with Colombia’s approach to groups like the Clan del Golfo, in the sense that beheading them with these high-profile, mass arrests like Otoniel’s have done nothing to affect the structure of the organization,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, Colombia analyst for the International Crisis Group, a think tank.
“The daily reality in the regions they control or dispute continues to involve high levels of social control, forced recruitment, coercion, extortion.”
“All of that is invisible, but at a time like this it becomes impossible for the state to ignore the depth of the presence of a group like the Gulf Clan in this region,” Dickinson said. “It’s actually quite shocking.”
Reference-www.theguardian.com