Local authorities and the national army said Saturday that seven alleged members of neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” have been killed in combat in the north of Colombia.
According to the Government Secretary of the Antioquia state, the armed confrontation took place in Zaragoza, a municipality in the Bajo Cauca region where a lot of cocaine is produced and illegal armed groups are increasingly involved with the illegal mining of gold.
The army said in a press release that it had been able to identify two of the seven suspected neo-paramilitaries. The remaining five bodies will be sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office for investigation.
The Urabeños were found some ten years ago by members of the then-demobilizing AUC paramilitary umbrella group that controlled most of Colombia’s drug trafficking routes. Since its foundation, the group has been able to violently repress other neo-paramilitary group that vied at inheriting the AUC’s criminal activities too.
The group’s origin’s are from the northwestern Uraba region, but the Urabeños control extends along the Caribbean coast to the Venezuelan border and down the Pacific coast.
Zaragoza, Antioquia
Sources
- En combates con el Ejército fueron abatidos siete ‘urabeños’ (Radio Santa Fe)