Police arrest 20 as ‘armed strike’ shuts down north Colombia

Colombia police said Thursday they have arrested 20 members of neo-paramilitary group “Los Urabeños” as the north of the country is paralyzed because residents are too afraid to break an “armed strike” imposed by the drug-trafficking organization.

The strike is the Urabeños’ response to the killing of one of their leaders.

The suspected members of the Urabeños, or “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia,” were arrested in the Bajo Cauca region where they allegedly were handing out pamphlets announcing the shut down of all commercial activity and public transport.

The Colombian army took control over the center of tourism hostpot Santa Marta where the neo-paramilitaries imposed the strike as well as in the entire Caribbean coast from the Panamanian border to the town of Tolu.

According to local media, the imposed strike went as far south as Santa Fe de Antioquia, another tourism hotspot, and paralyzed traffic between Medellin and the port town of Turbo. Buses to the northwest stayed in the northern bus terminal of Colombia’s second largest city.

The imposed strike was also imposed on Medellin’s western Comuna 13, where the Urabeños control the local urban gangs.

Towns in Choco, Colombia’s Pacific department, also shut down.

The armed strike is the biggest seen in Colombia in years and has taken the security forces by surprise. Despite promises by army and police commanders that people who would open their shops would be protected against retaliations, no shops opened in the area where the Urabeños imposed the strike.

Streets in Uraba are empty as most residents are too afraid to leave their homes and even in Santa Marta the armed strike converted the downtown area into a ghost town.

The 48-hour armed strike is expected to last until noon Friday.

The Urabeños are the biggest neo-paramilitary group that emerged from the officially demobilized AUC and one of the main drug trafficking organizations in Colombia.