The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has launched a campaign of terror since the May extradition of its leader to the US – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, killing dozens of police officers and holding large swathes of the country hostage. The right-wing group said the ceasefire, announced by the group on Sunday, was an “expression of goodwill with the new government and its broad willingness to seek paths of peace”. The offer comes as Petro said his government was to “restart” negotiations with the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, for the first time since the Colombian government broke off peace talks after the car bomb attack from the rebels to a police academy. in Bogotá in 2019. The two armed groups are among the largest and most powerful in Colombia, and both are wanted internationally for drug trafficking. Petro, a former insurgent now with the M-19 rebels, was voted into office on a wide range of promises, from fighting inequality to consolidating peace with armed groups that have become more violent in recent years. “We must end once and for all six decades of violence and armed conflict … Colombia’s perpetual war,” the president said in an inauguration speech on Sunday. Any peace pact with the militias would enhance Peter’s legacy as a historic leader. Negotiations with such groups are not unusual in a place like Colombia, which has struggled with waves of armed conflict for much of its history. The government struck deals with paramilitary groups in the mid-2000s and with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels in 2016. “It’s an opportunity,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis. “The Gulf tribe has already demonstrated its ability to mutilate 11 departments of Colombia. And the ELN believes that this is an opportunity to negotiate with a more favorable government of the left.” But many Colombians fear the talks could only deepen ongoing conflicts in the South American country. Violence in the northern home of human rights defender Yirley Velazco, Los Montes de María, a key area for illegal gold mining and drug trafficking, has increased in recent years since the country’s 2016 peace accord with the Farc. The failures of previous governments to fill the power vacuum left by the rebels have sparked violent power grabs by other groups, including the ELN and the Gulf tribe. Velazco has fled her home and now travels with an armed government bodyguard after receiving hundreds of death threats from the Gulf Clan. “This wave of violence has increased massively,” Velazco said. “You never know what can happen to you.” The leader said she hoped the Petro government would end the violence, but also worried that any new deals could only set up a new, bloodier battle for control. “”I’m afraid, because if [they’re fighting for power]they are even more dangerous,” Velazco said. And while Guzmán said the peace talks would be a step in the right direction, Petro will be hard-pressed to reach an agreement with groups because of political polarization in Colombia and the failures of the previous government of Iván Duque to implement the peace pact of 2016. Petro will have to show he is not just “handing over the keys to the castle” to groups wanted for human rights abuses and drug trafficking, he said. Meanwhile, militants considering laying down their arms will want security and financial assurances from the government, which Petro may not be able to deliver. “It won’t be easy,” he said.
