Jorge Enrique Botero

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 6, 2024, p. 22

Bogotá. The government of President Gustavo Petro announced yesterday that it will start talks with the so-called Clan del Golfo, the most powerful paramilitary structure derived from the former United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

In a resolution published in the Official diary The Executive announced the list of six representatives who will be part of the process, headed by Jiobanis de Jesús Ávila, known in the paramilitary world as Little Bad Boy.

Sources from the peace office said that the rapprochement with the Clan del Golfo will be attended by, on behalf of the government, Alvaro Jimenez, considered the right-hand man of Commissioner Otty Patiño, as well as Maria Gaitan, director of the National Center for Historical Memory and granddaughter of the assassinated liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.

Local analysts who follow the peace issue expressed their skepticism yesterday, even before the dialogues began, since the government believes that these should take place in a space for socio-legal conversationwhile the paramilitaries have expressed their interest in the process being a peace negotiation, which would imply granting them political status.

The largest armed group in Colombia

Figures recently revealed by the military place the Clan del Golfo as the largest irregular armed group in the country, not only because of the number of men in arms – some 13,000 – but also because it is the organization with the largest territorial presence and its broad possibilities for expansion in the shadow of illegal economies, especially coca crops and mining.

Made up mostly of former paramilitaries and retired members of the security forces, as well as former guerrillas who were left in limbo after the FARC handed over their weapons in 2016, the Clan del Golfo travels through the villages of various regions of the country, presenting itself to the population as a counterinsurgency organization that defends rural people from an alleged communist threat.

While details of the talks with the paramilitaries are being finalized, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez indicated that the military forces reactivated their operations against the structures of the National Liberation Army (ELN), after a last attempt to extend the ceasefire that had been agreed upon more than a year ago between the parties failed last Saturday.

With the ELN, the government closes the doors, but at the same time opens them with the paramilitarieshe commented to The Day a seasoned former commander of the defunct FARC who requested anonymity.

Following the announcement by the Minister of Defense, the question now hanging in the air is whether the breakdown of the bilateral ceasefire will also mean the end of the talks between the government and the ELN set up in November 2022.