By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, May 8 (Reuters) – Colombia’s government on Friday suspended arrest and extradition warrants against 29 leaders of the Clan del Golfo crime gang, the country’s largest illegal armed group, as part of peace talks the government has been holding with the gang, a government official told Reuters.
Among those benefiting from the suspension of arrest and extradition warrants is group leader Jobanis de Jesus Avila, better known by his alias Chiquito Malo, sought for extradition by the United States on drug trafficking charges. Colombia was offering a reward of over $1 million for his capture.
Friday’s resolution also allows for the relocation of some 400 Clan del Golfo combatants to designated relocation areas, Alvaro Jimenez, the government’s chief negotiator with the group, told Reuters, the first such move since Colombia’s government and the Clan del Golfo agreed to establish three temporary relocation zones in December.
“The decision aims to ease the peace process and facilitate entry into the temporary relocation zones starting June 25,” Jimenez said.
The December agreement aims to concentrate the armed group’s estimated 7,000 combatants in defined areas in a bid to curb violence and crime in the Andean country. Friday’s resolution only addresses two relocation areas in the provinces of Choco and Cordoba.
The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro, himself a former guerrilla member of the now-defunct M-19 rebel group, assumed power in 2022 promising to usher in a new age of “total peace” in the country, and aiming to end a six-decade-long internal conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead.
However, government talks have brought few tangible advances, and in some regions Petro has pledged massive social and military intervention with limited success. Petro will conclude his term in just three months.
Qatar, Spain, Norway, and Switzerland are participating as mediators in the peace process between the Colombian government and the Clan del Golfo. In December, the United States designated the Clan del Golfo as a terrorist group.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta, Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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