Colombia to treat all illegal armed groups as terrorists under new security strategy

Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella announced a comprehensive security strategy that will treat all illegal armed groups as terror organizations, regardless of their name or structure.

“When it comes to combating crime, there are no differences in the action of the State or in the response of the State, and much less in an organization designed by those seeking to protect these bandits so that the State cannot exercise the legitimate force as it should. All are terrorists and we are going to treat them as such,” De La Espriella said in a statement by the presidency.

The president ordered the immediate creation of a National Search Bloc to combat extortion, bringing together the army, police, navy and Aerospace Force in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office and the judiciary.

He also ordered the reactivation of the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF), which will be headed by former prosecutor Marta Lurreyes, and will have access to banking information from the last four years.

The unit will work with police and financial institutions to identify and dismantle the financial structures supporting criminal organizations, according to the statement.

The strategy also includes the reactivation of a rewards system, police raids and a network of civilian informants, as well as urgent transfers of prisoners to prevent prisons from continuing to operate as centers for extortion.

On migration, De La Espriella instructed Migration Colombia to launch coordinated operations with police in Barranquilla this week to target irregular migration and foreign criminal activity.

He also ordered the Colombian Public Force to operate as a “single and unified body,” without institutional rivalries, and announced the creation of elite teams of prosecutors and judges specializing in organized crime in each city.

The teams will target the so-called land cartel and the “gota a gota” system of informal, high-interest lending, which De La Espriella described as a modern form of slavery affecting millions of Colombians.

Colombia continues to face threats from armed and criminal groups, including the National Liberation Army (ELN), FARC dissidents and the Gulf Clan, which authorities link to drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and illegal mining.

Security has been a key priority for De La Espriella’s government, which has stepped up military and police operations against armed groups and criminal organizations.