Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro ordered his peace commissioner to seek talks with “Los Pachenca,” one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the Caribbean region.
Los Pachenca, who are also known as “Autodefensas Conquistadores de la Sierra Nevada” (ACSN), dominate organize crime in port city Santa Marta and the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains.
The resolution ordering negotiations with ACSN came on the heels of an orders to negotiate the possible demobilization of paramilitary organization EGC.
Colombia announces negotiations with EGC paramilitaries
Both the ACSN and the EGC have been seeking peace talks with the government since Petro took office in August of 2022.
Locals from Santa Marta all but shut down transport in June to force the government to negotiate peace with the rival groups that have been at war with each other since 2019.
In the case of the ACSN, the president refused to authorize peace talks, but ordered a “socio-judicial conversation” that seek to “verify their willingness to transition to the rule of law” and “establish term for their submission to justice.”
In the decree, Petro authorized the Peace Commissioner’s Office to reach out to the ACSN, but failed to specify the names of the group’s negotiators.
The ACSN did not immediately respond to the decree.
The EGC’s defense attorney, Ricardo Giraldo, said earlier this week that the paramilitaries were not interested in negotiating their surrender unless this is part of a transitional justice system.