Colombia: Gulf Clan escalates violence against police

Colombian police have become the target of the Clan del Golfo (“Gulf Clan“) criminal gang in recent weeks, which has intensified selective killings of members of the institution in the worst wave of violence in the last five years, authorities reported on Monday, July 25.

The killings by the Gulf Clan through the so-called “pistol plan” began last May in response to the extradition to the United States of its top leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias “Otoniel,” and to date, this criminal campaign has claimed the lives of more than 30 police officers.

The most recent victim was 25-year-old patrolman Diego Felipe Ruiz Rincón, killed by hitmen in Sampués, in the Caribbean department of Sucre.

This crime is added to that of patrolwoman Luisa Fernanda Zuleta, 27, who had been wounded on Saturday in a shooting attack in Yarumal (Antioquia) and died last night in Medellin, where she had been transferred due to the seriousness of her wounds.

In that action, attributed by the police to hired killers of the Clan del Golfo, her partner, the deputy superintendent Sergio Yepes, also lost his life.

“POLITICAL POSITIONING”

According to the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, with this wave of attacks, the Gulf Clan seeks to “position itself politically” for an eventual negotiation with the government of President-elect Gustavo Petro, who will take office on August 7 as the country’s first leftist president.

“Cowardly murders like that of PT. Fernanda Zuleta in Yarumal pain us all. It is unacceptable that strongholds of the Gulf Clan put a price on the life of a policeman just to position themselves politically. Until the last minute of August 7, we will pursue them without truce,” said Molano on Twitter.

Petro sent his condolences to the patrolwoman’s family today and said he would pay special attention to the families of police and military officers killed in the line of duty.

“My heartfelt condolences to the family of Luisa Fernanda Zuleta. I will look with special care at the state where the families of members of the public force killed in the line of duty have been left,” Petro wrote on his Twitter.

Regarding the attacks, the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (Cerac) reported today that during the week of July 15-22, there were 28 violent actions against the security forces that left five police officers and one soldier dead.

With information from DW