MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2023) Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the country's military to resume operations against the Gulf Clan (Clan del Golfo), announcing an end to the ceasefire following an attack on law enforcement officers.
"I have ordered government forces to resume all military operations against the Gulf Clan. The bilateral ceasefire with this illegal group has been suspended. We will not allow them to continue to sow dismay and terror in the communities. The armed attack by the Gulf Clan on the police violates the truce. From now on, there is no truce with the Gulf Clan," Petro said on Twitter on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Colombian police said that Wilmer Antonio Giraldo Quiroz, who had been the leader of the Gulf Clan after the arrest of former boss Dairo Antonio Usuga David, was found dead on a highway in the Colombian department of Antioquia.
The Clan del Golfo, Colombia's largest drug-trafficking gang which emerged after the demobilization of some paramilitary groups in 2006, declared a unilateral cessation of offensive hostilities in August 2022. However, Giraldo, best known by his alias Siopas, unlike other commanders of the group, refused to accept Petro's proposal for a comprehensive peace in the country.
