Officials from the northern Colombian Cordoba department met in Bogota to discuss the problem of drug trafficking in the region, Caracol Radio reported Friday.
The mayor of Tierralta, Anibal Ortiz said, “Today paramilitarism and drug trafficking are the same thing. Today it’s narco-guerrillas, narco-paramilitarism and gangs, and the epicenter of the violence is drugs.”
Cordoba is highly competed-over by neo-paramilitary groups and drug gangs as a valuable trafficking route from cocaine farms in the south to export locations on the Caribbean coast.
The mayor of the town of Planeta Rica, Oscar Ramon Diaz, said that an internal conflict between combating drug gangs is leaving innocent people dead and this causes anxiety and fear in the population.
Cordoba is the subject of a territorial war between the neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” and the drug gang “Los Rastrojos” who recently aligned with another neo-paramilitary group in the area, “Los Paisas.”
The mayors reported that there are areas in Cordoba that are completely controlled by drug gangs and the Tierralta mayor said that officials are cornered by drug gangs in the area.
Ortiz has been the victim of two assassination attempts and is said to be the most threatened person in the country, reported Caracol.
On Wednesday, two University of Cartagena students were murdered in Cerete, Cordoba, on their way home from studying at an Internet cafe. Local media report that criminal gangs are thought to be responsible.