In an ongoing attempt to curb the power of successor groups, authorities in central Colombia arrested “Nube Negra,” the alleged leader of AUC successor “Libertadores de Vichada.”
Nube Negra, whose official name is Jose Manuel Carpera, allegedly took over the leadership of the Libertadores de Vichada less than a year ago after the death of “Pijarvey.”
East Colombia’s most powerful drug kingpin killed
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Libertadores de Vichada
The Libertadores were founded after the 2012 partial demobilization of ERPAC, a daughter organization of the paramilitary AUC and also the mother organization of Nube Negra’s main rival, the “Bloque Meta.”
Rather than demobilizing, the two groups tried to assume control over the drug trafficking routes from central Colombia to Venezuela and Brazil.
Areas of operations
The country’s largest paramilitary successor group, the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, also known as the Urabeños, has been supporting the Bloque Meta.
Nube Negra was arrested in the town of San Martin, Meta, located in one of Colombia’s main coca cultivation regions.
According to the authorities, three of his bodyguards were also arrested.
The Libertadores would only exist of some 180 men, according to the military.
The group, together with the Urabeños and a dissident faction of the demobilized EPL, is a designated Organized Armed Group and a priority for Colombian law enforcement.
The military is allowed to carry out bombing raids on these groups that control the bulk of drug trafficking routes across Colombia.