A shooting that left five people dead on Sunday, may spark an onset of gang-related violence in Colombia’s capital city, experts speculated on Monday.
The deaths of five members of the gang known as “Los Pascuales” in the Usaquen district of Bogota could signal more Los Pascuales-fueled violence in that part of the capital.
An analyst for a social action think tank claimed that the murders could lead to an “increased [amount] of killings…either from retaliation among members of Los Pascuales or others who want to…weaken [them].”
“Bogota is an attractive city for dispensing drugs,” said analyst, Ariel Avila. The organized crime murder rate, “has barely fallen. In 2012, there were 120…killings and in 2011, [there were] 80. We still have much to do in the area of organized crime,” said Avila.
The Usaquen mayor, Luis Alfonso Villamil, echoed Avila’s statements while also suggesting that police are ill-equipped to deal with the drug gang and because of that, his district’s inhabitants continue to be extorted and operate under “the law of silence due to…fear of retaliation.”
Colonel Mariano Botero, Bogota’s Operative Commander, told Caracol Radio that authorities will take “all measures to liberate the community of this organization and to imprison its members.”
Local media reported that with regards to the Usaquen and Suba districts of Bogota, Los Pascuales have developed “almost a monopoly on arms trafficking, drug trafficking and large-scale theft.”