HomeNewsAnalysisPolice Surge in Cordoba After Student Killings
ANALYSIS

Police Surge in Cordoba After Student Killings

COLOMBIA / 20 JAN 2011 BY INSIGHT CRIME EN

Colombian authorities have announced a renewed offensive in the coastal province of Cordoba, where drug-trafficking gangs are clashing over the control of key smuggling routes to the Caribbean.

The department is an epicenter for the turf battles between the criminal syndicates known as the Paisas, the Rastrojos and the Urabeños. This week, combat between the rival gangs spurred the displacement of an estimated 110 people from the countryside to the town of Tierralta, reports the local newspaper El Meridiano de Cordoba.

The region has also received increased media attention in light of the killing of two biology students from a top Bogota university in early January. The young couple were shot at point-blank allegedly by operatives of the Urabeños while taking photographs of local flora in a rural area.

In a country long used to drug violence, the student murders appeared to bring about a renewed sense that insecurity in Cordoba had increased to the point where even those who are not linked to the drug trade are at risk. Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera announced Wednesday that Cordoba will soon see an "unprecedented offensive," with a surge of 720 police and 240 military troops to be deployed to the southern municipalities of Tierralta and Puerto Libertador.

In recent remarks during a security council, Police Director General Oscar Naranjo took care to imply that the focus on Cordoba is not spurred by the student deaths. "We want to clarify that we are not just interested in resolving the double homicide of the students from Bogota, but we want to capture those responsible for the many homicides last year, which are a tragedy for Cordoba, concerning farmers, community leaders, ranchers, police and professors," he said. 

According to one of Colombia's primary human rights organizations, known by its Spanish acronym CODHES, Cordoba saw 600 people murdered last year in gang-related violence and 45 deaths so far this year. These are higher statistics than those kept by the Police, who have counted 28 murders so far in 2011.

The department is a stronghold for the Urabeños, who are the remnants of a paramilitary, drug-trafficking bloc once led by Mario Rendon Herrera, alias "Don Mario," arrested in 2008. Unlike other regions in Colombia, where the criminal bands usually operate in small groups and in civilian wear, Cordoba has seen instances of the Urabeños operating in uniform or else instigating large-scale battles with their rivals.

In March 2010, police arrested 56 men after breaking up an armed confrontation between about 200 members of the Urabeños, Rastrojos and Paisas.

The Urabeños are led by Dario Antonio and Juan de Dios Usuga, who have instilled military-style discipline over the organization, to great success. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

AUC / 8 AUG 2022

Guillermo León Acevedo Giraldo, alias "Memo Fantasma," has been granted his liberty from a maximum-security prison in Bogotá.

EXTORTION / 31 MAY 2023

A new report has found that organized crime groups are overwhelmingly to blame for violence in Mexico, and the CJNG…

COCAINE / 9 JUN 2022

An ingenious Italian-Colombian sting operation has arrested dozens of people on both continents and seized a huge quantity of cocaine,…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…