The Clan del Golfo announced this Wednesday the provisional suspension of its dialogues with the Colombian government after it allegedly handed over to the United States the names of several drug trafficking chiefs, considered high-value targets, including its own top leader, Jobanis de Jesús Ávila, alias Chiquito Malo.
The delivery of these names apparently took place on Tuesday during the meeting at the White House between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his US counterpart, Donald Trump. "If this information is confirmed, it would be an attack on good faith and the commitments assumed at the dialogue table," stated the Clan del Golfo, the country's largest criminal group, which calls itself the Gaitanist Army of Colombia (EGC), in a message on its X account.
The Petro government has maintained a dialogue table with the Clan del Golfo in Doha since last September, with the accompaniment of Qatar, Spain, Norway, and Switzerland. The illegal armed group revealed that, following the handover of drug trafficking chiefs' names to the U.S., and by order of its Joint Staff, "its delegation decided to provisionally suspend the conversations" while internal consultations are held and the truth of what was reported in local media is clarified.
Colombia's Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez Suárez, said in an interview with Blu Radio station that at the Petro and Trump meeting, the governments assumed joint commitments to act against high-value targets of drug trafficking and illegal armed groups. The station published a document in English allegedly delivered to US authorities with the names of three guerrilla or drug trafficking leaders on whom actions will be focused in the next two months.
The names included are those of Jobanis de Jesús Ávila, alias Chiquito Malo, leader of the Clan del Golfo; Gustavo Giraldo Quinchía, alias Pablito, a member of the Central Command (COCE) of the ELN guerrilla group, and Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias Iván Mordisco, head of the Central Staff (EMC), the main dissidence of the FARC.
The Clan del Golfo, which, according to a report released last Friday by the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), has 9,840 members, stated that it has been "the only armed group that has fulfilled and honored its commitments" in the government's Total Peace policy. In another message, the Clan del Golfo accused Petro of putting "personal interests" above the goal of peace in the regions.
The Colombian government has not yet commented on the group's statements or on the real scope of the commitments mentioned after the bilateral meeting between Petro and Trump at the White House. On December 16, the United States designated the Clan del Golfo as a foreign terrorist organization, a decision that entails financial sanctions, asset freezing, and the possibility of prosecuting those who support the group, directly or indirectly.
