Colombians closed shops and stayed off the roads on Thursday in parts of the north after threats by one of the country’s main drug gangs sparked fear of violent retribution for the killing of the group’s leader, police said.
“We’ve captured 11 people who were involved in distributing pamphlets and intimidating the population into closing their shops and impeding their free movement by road,” Colombian police General Jose Roberto Leon told reporters.
On New Year’s Day, Colombian police killed the leader of the Urabenos drug cartel — one of Colombia’s main gangs, along with Los Rastrojos, Los Paisas and Las Aguilas Negras.
Fear of retribution by the Urabenos stopped normal activities in areas of the departments of Sucre, Cordoba, Choco, Antioquia and Magdalena, police and local media said.
The Andean nation has faced decades of cocaine-fueled bloodshed involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and government forces. While violence has fallen since 2002, powerful new criminal bands made up of ex-paramilitary groups have become a main new threat for Colombia.
Many of those areas affected by threats on Thursday were once dominated by right-wing paramilitary groups, some of whom joined criminal gangs after demobilizing earlier this century.
The killing of Urabenos’ leader Juan de Dios Usuga was the latest blow against criminal groups. In November, Colombia and neighboring Venezuela announced the capture of one of the region’s most wanted drug traffickers.
Colombia — for years synonymous with cocaine lords like Pablo Escobar, high-profile kidnappings and leftist guerrillas marauding and attacking towns — turned a corner after launching a US-backed security crackdown more than a decade ago.
Violence dropped dramatically and security in some rural areas improved — the popular security policies were continued by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos when he took power in 2010.
Last year, Colombia launched a new security plan, vowing to break up criminal gangs, minimize drug trafficking and improve security by 2014.
The new drug bands — made up of ex-paramilitaries and mid-level former drug runners — filled a vacuum left by the destruction of old drug cartels in the 1990s and took over much of the drug trade in the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in