HomeNewsBriefGaitanistas Call for Inclusion in Colombia Peace Talks
BRIEF

Gaitanistas Call for Inclusion in Colombia Peace Talks

COLOMBIA / 28 JUN 2013 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

The most powerful and feared of Colombia's narco-paramilitary groups -- the Gaitanistas -- has called for political recognition and inclusion in peace talks in a statement that strongly suggests the group's leaders are planning a surprise exit strategy.

Going under the group's official name "the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia," the Gaitanistas, also known as the Gulf Clan, Urabeños, and Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC), issued a communiqué, in which they praised the current peace talks between the government and the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but said there would be no lasting peace while they were not part of the process.

The Gaitanistas called for recognition as the "third actor" in Colombia's conflict, labeling themselves a group of armed civil resistance. "With 7,000 armed men and a nationwide presence, we cannot be ignored," the statement read.

The group also denied any involvement in the drug trade, apart from taxing producers in areas where they operate, and blasted the Colombian authorities for corruption, which they identified as the country's "principal problem." They also denied claims the group is linked to the so-called "anti-land restitution army" and praised the government for its initiative to restore stolen lands to the displaced.

In the statement, the group also criticized the peace process with the paramilitary organization that spawned it, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and reserved specific criticism for ex-President Alvaro Uribe, both for his role in the AUC demobilization and for his opposition to current peace talks.

InSight Crime Analysis

This is not the first time the AGC have employed political rhetoric in their public communications, but it is the first time the group has shown a desire to engage with the government as political actors. Behind this shock move may well be a strategy devised by leaders to bow out of the underworld on their own terms.

Over the last few years, the AGC have rapidly expanded throughout the country and positioned themselves to become the dominant force in Colombian organized crime. However, they have also seen a steady loss of important leaders, such as Francisco Morelo Peñata, alias "El Negro Sarley," Henry de Jesus Lopez, alias "Mi Sangre," and several members of the group's dominant clan, the Usugas, and it is possible the maximum command feels the net closing in.

In this case, they may well be looking to try and negotiate an exit on the most favourable terms possible. The last generation of leaders in rival group the Rastrojos similarly bowed out just at the peak of the group's power. However, while Rastrojos leaders negotiated their surrender as drug traffickers, it seems the AGC are turning to a strategy employed by the original Rastrojos, who tried to pass off their narco-army as an AUC unit and claim demobilization benefits.

The plan failed, and given the overwhelming evidence that the AGC are a criminal not political force, this latest play is also unlikely to prove successful.

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

COLOMBIA / 21 MAR 2022

A top Colombian drug trafficker walked out of a maximum-security prison in Bogotá without ever being challenged, exposing deep-seated corruption…

COCAINE / 9 FEB 2022

As Colombian traffickers and police continually try to outfox each other, liquid cocaine has returned to the fore as an…

COCA / 12 JUL 2022

The historic publication of the Final Report from Colombia’s Truth Commission has crystallized the core issues that president-elect Gustavo Petro…

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…