Colombia’s president is seeking to suspend arrest orders against some of the country’s biggest criminal suspects as part of an ambitious plan to dismantle armed groups that have long dominated the countryside.
January 13, 2023, 5:53 PMFILE- Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks on the 100th day of his administration at the Narino Palace presidential office in Bogota, Colombia, o Nov. 15, 2022. Petro is seeking to suspend arrest orders against some of the countrys biggest criminal suspects as part of an ambitious plan to dismantle armed groups that have long dominated the countryside.
The request to suspend the arrest orders against eight members of the so-called Gulf Clan was made by President Gustavo Petro's peace commissioner in a letter dated Jan. 11 to Colombia's chief prosecutor. Among those on the list are Jobanis Villadiego, also known by his alias “Bad Boy,” who was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in 2015 alongside Dairo Antonio Úsuga,A copy of the letter was provided to The Associated Press by someone close to U.S.
Colombia's top law enforcement authority on Friday said there was no legal basis for Petro's request. In a seven-page rebuttal shared with the media, the chief prosecutor's office said such requests could only be made against members of politically motivated armed groups whereas the Gulf Clan — which emerged from the ashes of Colombia's right-wing paramilitary movement — was a purely criminal enterprise.
The Gulf Clan is accused of being Colombia's largest drug trafficking organization, responsible for sending as much as 20 metric tons of cocaine each month to the U.S. and Europe.and likening him to the feared Pablo Escobar who terrorized much of Colombia before his death in the 1990s.Petro has taken a different approach from his law and order predecessor.
Villadiego is wanted in the U.S. on multiple drug trafficking charges and in Colombia faces additional charges for homicide and forced recruitment of minors to commit criminal acts. Like his former boss Úsuga, he was a member of the right-wing United Self Defense Forces of Colombia who renounced violence as part of a 2004 peace deal. But he later returned to a life of crime as one of Úsuga's top lieutenants in the Gulf Clan.Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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