Alias Cholo Was a Petro-Era Peace Manager, Colombia’s President Says
Colombia · Security
Key Facts
- —What happened President Abelardo de la Espriella said alias Cholo, killed on Monday near Santa Marta, had held “peace manager” status.
- —Who he was José Luis Pérez Villanueva, second in command and finance chief of the ACSN, also called Los Pachenca.
- —The offensive The president vowed to hunt the group’s leaders, naming alias Pinocho, alias Patiliso and a commander known as 200.
- —On the ground Magdalena’s governor said on Tuesday there was no armed strike, and traffic on the coastal highway was restored.
- —The catch On record he was a spokesman in Petro’s talks, and prosecutors suspended his arrest warrants until 1 September.
- —Why it matters It is his sharpest attack yet on Gustavo Petro’s talks with armed groups, which his government is dismantling.
A day after police killed the second in command of a Caribbean armed group, Colombia’s president turned the raid into a verdict on his predecessor’s peace policy.
Alias Cholo, the armed-group commander police killed near Santa Marta on Monday, once held official “peace manager” status. That is the claim President Abelardo de la Espriella made as he promised to finish off the rest of the group.
The group is the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN), a drug-trafficking and extortion network on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The president used the claim to attack the peace policy of his predecessor, Gustavo Petro.
“Este bandido de alias Cholo, narcoterrorista, fue gestor de paz,” he said. In English: “This bandit, the narco-terrorist alias Cholo, was a peace manager.”
“Yo acabé con esa farsa,” he went on: “I ended that farce.”
He spoke at an extraordinary security council in Santa Marta, according to the weekly Semana and the Cartagena daily El Universal. He did not describe the paperwork behind the status.
The public record shows something close to it. The Attorney General’s Office, which runs prosecutions, had suspended his arrest warrants because he was a spokesman in talks with Petro’s government.
A resolution dated 20 November 2025 extended that suspension, El Tiempo and El Espectador reported. When police stopped him near Guachaca on 23 December 2025, he was freed after about four hours.
His lawyer said then that state decisions taken “en el marco de la paz”, within the peace framework, had to be respected. Prosecutors reactivated the warrant on 1 September 2026, after the talks ended.
What a peace manager is
A peace manager, or gestor de paz, is a status used under Petro’s “total peace” policy. It let people linked to armed groups act as go-betweens in talks with the state.
Some prisoners were released to take up the role, an opinion column in the magazine CAMBIO noted on 30 August. It named at least two whose whereabouts are now unknown.
“Esos tiempos de asociación entre el Gobierno y los criminales acabaron,” the president added. In English: “Those times of association between the government and criminals are over.”
His government has signed resolutions ending the dialogue tables Petro opened with several groups, the ACSN among them, the same column said.
Who alias Cholo was
He was identified as José Luis Pérez Villanueva, also known as Comando 25. He was the ACSN’s second in command and ran its finances.
The president described a criminal career of more than 15 years, starting as a hitman chief in the Clan del Golfo. That is Colombia’s largest drug-trafficking organisation.
According to the president, alias Cholo commanded about 80 men. He oversaw targeted killings, extortion and cocaine shipments by speedboat and semi-submersible.
He was killed on Monday 21 September in Quebrada del Sol, in the rural Guachaca area east of Santa Marta. The police antinarcotics directorate led the operation.
Three police Black Hawk helicopters and two Air Force Super Tucano light attack aircraft supported it, Infobae reported. Seven people were killed and three captured.
The president said six more bodies could not be recovered from the site, which he counted as 13 fighters taken out. The Barranquilla daily El Heraldo reported that a son of the group’s top leader was among the dead.
“Al infierno en una bolsa”
A communiqué attributed to the group declared a 48-hour armed strike on Monday. After a cabinet meeting in Bogotá that day, De la Espriella said he was flying to Santa Marta.
“Nadie va a hacer paro armado en la era del tigre,” he said then, using his own nickname. “Nobody is going to stage an armed strike in the era of the tiger.”
In Santa Marta he spoke at the police’s Antinarcotics Base No. 8, according to El Heraldo.
He promised to bring the group’s members to justice, El Heraldo reported. “O los vamos a mandar al infierno en una bolsa como la que ven aquí,” he added.
That is: “Or we will send them to hell in a bag like the one you see here.”
El Tiempo reported the targets he named next: alias Pinocho, alias Patiliso and a commander known as 200. The Cali daily El País described it as an offensive against the ACSN.
The message to Pinocho
Alias Pinocho is Fredy Castillo Carrillo, the ACSN’s top leader, who once was extradited to the United States. This month he told Semana he would surrender if guaranteed set terms.
On 12 September the president gave his ministers one week to secure that surrender and ruled out any deal. Pinocho remains at large, El Heraldo reported on Tuesday.
“Pinocho, tienes fecha de expiración y estamos tras de ti,” De la Espriella wrote on X. “Pinocho, you have an expiry date and we are coming after you.”
In another post he listed the fallen: “Bendito Menor, Cholo y muy pronto vendrá Pinocho,” or “and very soon Pinocho will follow.”
Alias Bendito Menor, another ACSN commander, died in a police operation in La Guajira on 4 September, according to the government.
One group, two names
The ACSN is the same organisation locally called Los Pachenca. InSight Crime, a research group on organised crime, says it took the Pachenca name after 2013 and later renamed itself.
It grew from the paramilitary army of Hernán Giraldo, which demobilised in 2006. Colombia’s security forces count 594 members, El Tiempo reported, though other estimates run from 800 to 1,000.
Tuesday in Santa Marta
More than 90 percent of Santa Marta’s shops were shut on Tuesday morning, estimated Lerber Dimas Vásquez of the rights group PDHAL. Intercity buses had stopped, El Espectador reported.
Dimas told the newspaper the strike pamphlet did not look authentic, but it had the intended effect. Merchants asked for police escorts to reopen, the outlet Publimetro reported.
Later on Tuesday the governor of Magdalena, María Margarita Guerra, said “no hay paro armado”, El Heraldo reported. That means no armed strike was in force.
Traffic on the Troncal del Caribe coastal highway was flowing again. The last burned vehicle was cleared at 5 a.m. Colombia time.
Rural schools around Santa Marta, the Zona Bananera and Ciénaga switched to alternative classes as a precaution.
Nobody has been charged over the suspension of alias Cholo’s warrants, which Petro’s peace policy allowed for spokesmen in talks.
More: Colombia coverage, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was alias Cholo?
José Luis Pérez Villanueva, the second in command and finance chief of the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada (ACSN). He was killed in a police operation in the Guachaca area east of Santa Marta on Monday 21 September 2026. President Abelardo de la Espriella says he had held peace-manager status; prosecutors had suspended his arrest warrants while he was a spokesman in talks.
Are Los Pachenca and the ACSN different groups?
No. Los Pachenca is the older, still common name for the same organisation. InSight Crime says the group adopted the Pachenca name after 2013 and later renamed itself the Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la Sierra Nevada. Colombian outlets use both names for it.
Is there an armed strike in Santa Marta?
A communiqué attributed to the ACSN declared a 48-hour armed strike on Monday. Many shops were closed on Tuesday morning, but Magdalena’s governor said later that day that no strike was in force. Traffic on the coastal highway had been restored.
What happens to alias Pinocho now?
Fredy Castillo Carrillo, the ACSN’s top leader, remains at large. The president has ruled out negotiating his surrender and says security forces are pursuing him.
Sources: Semana on the peace-manager claim, El Universal on the security council, El Heraldo on the speech at the antinarcotics base, El Heraldo on the warning to Pinocho, El Heraldo on the governor’s statement, El Tiempo on the named targets, Infobae on the aircraft and the X posts, El País on the offensive, El Espectador on Tuesday’s closures, InSight Crime on the group’s names, El Tiempo on the suspended warrant, El Espectador on the 2026 reactivation, CAMBIO on peace managers
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