The hope of a few months ago now seems to be buried in Buenaventura, Colombia’s main seaport. The peace laboratory announced by the government at the end of 2022, which wanted to start talks with the gangs operating in the city in order to achieve their peaceful dissolution, is failing due to the increasing violence. A ceasefire with the region’s main gangs, Los Shottas and Los Espartanos, averted violent deaths late last year, but recent months have seen fresh killings, clashes and the emergence of new armed actors. Some gangs have been replaced by others who terrorize and imprison the populace while demanding the presence of the army. In a video circulated on social networks, the armed criminals warn: “We will defend them with our lives. We will defend them with blood and fire.”
Even before taking office, Petro expressed his intention to give priority to dialogue in order to find a concerted solution to the conflict. Dubbing his initiative “total peace,” although he recently said it was the press that invented the term, he pledged that his government would create the conditions for a multitude of illegal groups to be brought to justice and lay down their arms. Doubts and questions, particularly regarding the criteria for selecting the structures that could benefit from the proposal, did not prevent Congress from passing Law 2272, which established the legal framework for conducting these negotiations.
Last October, with the intervention of the Diocese of Buenaventura and the local Community Action Board, Los Shottas and Los Espartanos agreed to end their war activities. This decision was taken by both groups as a demonstration of their good faith in their interest in working together to seek peace. And at first everything looked fine. Petro himself in December celebrated the fact that the city had gone more than 85 days without any killings, adding that the security situation compares favorably to “many cities in the United States”.
However, the apparent calm was completely shattered in April when shootings broke out again between gang members in various port communities. Everything indicates that the disappearance and possible death of Super, one of Los Shottas’ spokesmen in talks with the government, was the tipping point for the outbreak of violence. The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace referred to these events in a statement expressing solidarity with the gang member’s family and calling for a “return to the climate of calm and confidence that has prevailed in the past few months.” city has been reached”. . In any case, the situation was already out of control.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a video that has been circulating on social media since this week, showing a dozen hooded gunmen. “We will defend them with our lives. We will defend them with blood and fire. Jalisco doesn’t exist here, Jalisco is in Mexico. We are Buenaventura!” the man holding the camera is heard saying. According to preliminary information, these are members of Los Roberts who are threatening the Jalisco Gang, an organization that works hand-in-hand with the Mexican cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. These are two new armed groups, distinct from Los Shottas and Los Espartanos, entering the already contentious territorial struggle taking place in the region.
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“On behalf of Valle del Cauca, I ask that the entire Buenaventura Special District be militarized immediately. “There is an urgent need to protect the community and put an end to the illegal economy,” was the message Governor Clara Luz Roldán sent to President Petro and his Defense Minister Iván Velásquez. According to Roldán, the public order situation is so overwhelmed that “the army has to arrive, occupy the entire area, protect the community and stay”.
His request received a response within hours from the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, announcing it would create spaces for social justice talks to achieve “public commitments” with illegal actors and urging them to “keep hope alive.” to obtain”. For his part, Minister Velásquez announced the activation of a “joint strategy by the public authorities, the prosecutor’s office and the Valle government to ensure the protection of the population of Buenos Aires”.
The current scenario of total peace poses an enormous challenge for the government, which can be a triumph or, on the contrary, a condemnation. For the laboratory that was supposed to be built in Buenaventura to be exported to the rest of the country to fail would be a too deep violation of one of the president’s priorities since coming to power.
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