Violence in Colombia’s port cities on the Caribbean coast is soaring despite efforts by President Gustavo Petro to implement his “Total Peace” policy.
Local authorities in Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta blame the violence on turf wars between paramilitary organization EGC, drug trafficking organization “Los Pachencas” and local groups.
In the first four months of this year, the medical examiner’s office registered an increase in homicides in all three cities compared to the same period last year.
This increase was particularly notable in Barranquilla, where homicides went up 30% to 164, and in the much smaller Santa Marta, which saw homicides go up 18% to 67.
Between 2014 and 2023, homicides registered in the port cities went up 39% from 752 to 1046.
In Santa Marta, homicides that were registered between January and April doubled over the past decade.
What’s at stake
Drug interdictions in port cities in both Colombia and Europe suggest that the Caribbean ports are major drug trafficking hubs.
The Troncal del Caribe highway is another key asset for drug traffickers as it connects the Caribbean cities to each other and the rest of Colombia.
Control over the ports and the highway facilitates drug trafficking and allows organized crime groups to demand payment from drug traffickers for the use of the trade infrastructure.
On top of that, “from Barranquilla there would be operating a network that is dedicated to money laundering, which uses different companies from Barranquilla to receive more than COP100 billion ($24.4 million) from Turkey, China, United States, Panama, Spain, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Hong Kong corresponding to advance payments for exports that never happened,” the Ombudsman’s Office said last year.
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Who is fighting who
This has created tensions and violent conflict between the AGC from the northwest, the Pachencas from Santa Marta and emerging organized crime syndicates from Cartagena and Barranquilla.
Authorities in Cartagena, for example, claimed earlier this year that conflict between the EGC and a new organized crime group called “La Heroica” has been fueling gang violence in their city.
In Barranquilla, relatively new groups like “Los Pepes” and the “Rastrojos Costeños” have been vying for control over their city and container ports, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.
In all cities, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Western Balkans Cartel have been active to secure drug shipments to the United States and Europe.
Corrupt elements in the local police departments have been involved in organized crime since drug trafficking became a thing in the 1960’s.
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Peace efforts
Petro and his former Peace Commissioner, Danilo Rueda, on multiple occasions implied that they would negotiate an end to violence with the EGC and the Pachencas.
These talks never happened, much to the annoyance of locals from Santa Marta, who shut down parts of the city and the highway earlier this month to demand peace talks.
In order to shut down the strike, Petro’s new peace commissioner, Otty Patiño, vowed to meet with community leaders in the second week of July, Santa Marta peace commissioner Jenny del Toro told Colombia Reports.
According to Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group, thegovernment is making no significant efforts to make true on its promises to negotiate an end to violence with the EGC.