De la Espriella Warns Mayors and Governors that They Cannot Talk to Armed Groups
President Abelardo de la Espriella continues with his task of dismantling the so-called “total peace” of his predecessor, Gustavo Petro. This Friday, September 4, he issued a warning to the governors and mayors of Colombia, stating that they cannot conduct any type of dialogue or conversation with illegal armed groups.
The president’s statement was made at the governors’ summit in Mompox, department of Bolivar, amid the military offensive his Government is carrying out against criminal organizations, which had a victory report with the killing of alias ‘Bendito Menor’ in Riohacha, La Guajira, in northern Colombia, an operation in which his romantic partner, alias ‘La Bebecita’, and two bodyguards were also killed.
Particular warning to governor of Narino
“No governor and no mayor may independently conduct negotiations, agreements or clandestine contacts with terrorist structures,” De la Espriella said firmly. “I will make sure that whoever crosses that line answers to justice.”
But De la Espriella’s warning, although it may have appeared general, had a specific recipient: the governor of the department of Narino, in southern Colombia and bordering Ecuador, Luis Alfonso Escobar, who has been criticizing the current Government’s strategy. He has questioned the bombings and has also called for preventing the country from moving from “total peace” to “total war.” He also said that he would not allow his department to “be filled with blood.”
De la Espriella addressed Escobar directly: “I want to be very clear and I want to be especially clear with you, Mr. Governor of Narino. You have been warned,” the president said. This same Friday, the head of state issued new resolutions ending two dialogue processes: one with the Comuneros del Sur front and another with the criminal structures of Medellin and the Aburra Valley.
The head of state made it clear that he will not tolerate that, “while our soldiers and police officers risk their lives to confront these criminals, any authority attempts to make under-the-table pacts with the enemies of the Homeland.” He insisted on the need for, if decentralization is desired, it not to be something that “serves no purpose if the State does not exercise authority in the territory.”
“There is no possible autonomy where terrorists decide who enters, who works and who can live in peace,” the president declared. “I promised to confront terrorism, I am doing it and I will defeat it with God’s help and that of the public security forces. I did not come to accommodate those who murder, extort, recruit children and attempt to subjugate the defenseless population through terror.”
Recovering authority and sustaining it with security
He recalled that his policy opens the doors to those who want to “abandon terrorism” and submit to justice, but “whoever persists in crime must know that El Tigre is coming for him and will apply the full weight of the law. The recovery of territorial control is an absolute priority.”
In this regard, he insisted that the order is to “recover authority and sustain it with security, justice, services and permanent State presence,” and explained that “the public security forces will concentrate their capabilities in the most critical areas of Colombia, attack sources of illegal financing, close strategic corridors and reduce the ability of terrorist structures to regroup.
“Let it be clear: the offensive is not limited to the leaders,” De la Espriella said, specifying that his order is to “strike the entire system: commanders, successors, support networks, routes, logistical operators, finances, front men and assets.” This is because “it is not enough to take away their men and weapons. They must also lose the money with which they finance terror. I am going to suffocate them, I am going to neutralize them and I am going to annihilate them.”
Referring to urban security, another of the concerns of Colombians, he said that the National Police will provide guarantees “in neighborhoods, corridors and metropolitan areas, where crime is hitting hardest. Intelligence is fundamental, dear governors. Military, police, financial and cyber intelligence will have to work in an integrated manner to anticipate threats and act before terrorists can strike.”
He also said that he spoke with the Attorney General of the Nation, Luz Adriana Camargo, so that every result against terrorism has a judicial outcome, since, in his view, the country needs “solid investigations, well-supported indictments and charges that allow judges to impose the convictions that correspond under the law.”