International
Seven FARC dissidents who were traveling in official vehicles were captured in Colombia
Seven members of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident of the FARC, were captured in the Colombian department of Antioquia (northwest), when they were intercepted in a surprise military operation when they were moving in official vehicles.
The confirmation of the arrests was made by the Prosecutor’s Office in a statement in which it assured that it “captured in flagrante” seven members who were mobilized in official vehicles of the National Protection Unit (UNP) on a road between the municipalities of Santo Domingo and Barbosa.
The Prosecutor’s Office detailed that “three of them will be released as a result of the suspension of the arrest warrants requested by the national government, as members of the peace negotiating table with that armed organization outside the law.”
It all began when the Army intercepted a caravan of seven vans from the UNP, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior, in which the heads of an EMC block were traveling.
Among them was Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias ‘Calarcá’, who is the commander of the Magdalena Medio Block and one of the EMC negotiators with the Government, who had valid safe-conduct, but also guerrilla bosses on whom arrest warrants weigh.
The governor of Antioquia, Andrés Julián Rendón, was the one who from the beginning warned of the presence of guerrillas in the caravan of official vehicles, while, as he said, there are two mayors of that region, those of Toledo and San Rafael, who despite being threatened, do not have protection from the UNP.
“There is a very sad thing here and that is that I have two mayors threatened (…) and these criminals walking with the resources of the UNP throughout the country with weapons, with cash, with gold,” said the governor.
The Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, said that six members of the dissidents who traveled with alias ‘Calarcá’ were captured at a checkpoint.
He explained that among the detainees is Edgar de Jesús Orrego Arango, alias ‘Firu’ or ‘Leo’, who had an arrest warrant for several crimes.
Likewise, “five more people in flagrante dest,” were arrested, including alias ‘Érika’, “who had in her possession a supplier and other elements and María Alejandra Ojeda, who had a gun in illegal possession,” he said.
Velásquez added that he was also arrested alias ‘Ramiro’, who, despite having the arrest warrant suspended, “admitted to carrying an illegal weapon and for that reason was captured in flagrante delite.”
The same thing happened with ‘Urías Perdomo’, leader of the front Rodrigo Cadete and alias ‘Oliver González’, of the Raúl Reyes Commission.”
The minister pointed out that in the search the authorities found two revolvers, a supplier, bullets and one hundred million pesos in cash (about 25,000 dollars today).
Regarding the situation, the chief negotiator of the Government of Colombia with a part of the EMC, Camilo González Posso, said that the suspension of the arrest warrant with alias ‘Firu’ is in progress but that at the time of being arrested he was in an “irregular situation.”
“In these circumstances we have been informed of the arrest of one of the commanders of front 36, named ‘Firu’ or ‘Leo’, who has suspension of arrest warrant pending, we hope he will come out soon, but anyway it is an irregular situation and we have proceeded in accordance with the law,” added the chief negotiator.
Despite the incident, González Posso said: “We hope that this situation will be clarified (…) we want it to be resolved by law and we can resume the activities planned for this week.”
Last week the Colombian Government announced the termination of the bilateral ceasefire with the EMC due to its constant attacks on the civilian population and the Police in the southwest of the country, but maintained it for three months with three other organizations of that group, including the Magdalena Medio Block.
The EMC has been in peace talks since last year, but the dialogues have been hampered by the frequent attacks of that group in the departments of Cauca, Nariño and Valle del Cauca, in the southwest of the country.
Faced with that situation, the Government suspended contacts with the faction led by alias ‘Iván Mordisco’ last April, with which it ended the ceasefire in force since the beginning of the year, while maintaining them with the other three groups.
International
At least two members of the Gulf Clan die in a Colombian Army operation
At least two members of a Gulf Clan group, accused of the murder of social leader Jaime Gallego, died this Sunday in an operation carried out by the Colombian Army in a rural area of the municipality of Anorí, in the department of Antioquia (northwest).
The Seventh Division of the Army detailed in a statement that during the operation two members of the Gulf Clan, the main criminal gang in the country, were killed, as well as “war material, stewardship, communications, explosives and ammunition” was seized.
“This is a sustained operation that seeks to hit the Jorge Mario Valle Structure of the GAO (organized armed group) Clan del Golfo, responsible for the murder of social leader Jaime Gallego. Currently, this military operation is in development,” the information added.
Gallego, a defender of human rights and traditional miners of Antioquia, who had been missing for a week, was murdered, according to social organizations on Sunday.
“With deep pain and indignation we have learned that the social leader and defender of human rights Jaime Gallego, known as ‘Mongo’, was cowardly murdered,” said the Corporation for Peace and Social Development (Corpades) in its X account.
Gallego had been missing since March 3 when he was last seen along with his escort Didier Berrío, of the National Protection Unit (UNP), whose whereabouts are “unknown.”
The social leader was found “lifeless at 2:00 in the morning on the sidewalk (hamlet) El Jabón, in the municipality of Vegachí, with gunshots,” the information added.
According to the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (Indepaz), with the death of Gallego, 33 social leaders have been murdered so far this year in Colombia.
Gallego was the founder of the Mesa Minera of the municipalities of Segovia and Remedios (Antioquia), where there are disputes between different illegal armed groups over gold deposits, and in 2023 he was a candidate for mayor of Segovia for the Historical Pact, party of President Gustavo Petro.
Last August, Petro authorized the opening of a “socio-legal conversation space” with the Gulf Clan, heir to the paramilitary United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) and the country’s main criminal gang.
The objective of this space is to set the terms of submission to justice according to the precepts allowed by law, but the process has not yet begun.
Unlike other negotiating tables installed such as those that the Government has with the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN), with a faction of the FARC dissidents of the Central General Staff (EMC) and with a split group of the Second Marquetalia, it is a space for socio-legal conversations.
This happens because the Government does not recognize the Gulf Clan, self-proclaimed Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC), political status.
International
Sheinbaum: Mexico will collaborate so that fentanyl does not reach the US and that there is dialogue
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, led this Sunday a public assembly in the Zócalo of Mexico City, attended by thousands of people, in which she assured that her country will continue to collaborate to prevent drugs, and especially fentanyl, from reaching the United States.
In addition, she said she was convinced that “the relationship between Mexico and the United States must be good, of respect and that dialogue will always prevail.”
“I tell the American people that we have and will not have any intention of harming them and that we are determined to collaborate with them in all areas. Especially given the concern they have about the serious problem of synthetic drug consumption,” he said.
“For humanitarian reasons, Mexico will continue to collaborate to prevent fentanyl from reaching young Americans (…) Not only do we not want that drug to reach young people in the United States, but it does not reach anywhere in the world or young Mexicans,” he added.
He said that “it is essential to attend to the consumption of narcotics from the root of the addiction.”
Sheinbaum specified that, according to the United States Customs and Border Protection, between October 2024 and January 2025 the crossing of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States decreased by 50% and from January to February 2025 by another 41%.
He also pointed out that just as there is a strategy to prevent the crossing of drugs to the United States, “we have proposed to the Government of the United States that it must be implemented so that high-powered weapons stop arriving in our country.”
In what she called an “Informative Assembly”, the Mexican president explained to her thousands of supporters, governors of the country’s states, businessmen and politicians, the agreement reached last Thursday with her American counterpart, Donald Trump, to pause for a month the threat of tariffs on Mexican products.
“We must thank the willingness of the president of the United States to dialogue with Mexico. There are some people who are not interested in a good relationship between our peoples and governments, but I am sure that with information and respectful dialogue we can always achieve a relationship of respect. So far it has been like this,” he said.
He said that being neighboring countries “we have the responsibility to collaborate and coordinate,” Sheinbaum recalled that last Tuesday, March 4, Trump imposed taxes of 25% on exports from Mexico to the United States, but after a call on Thursday, the measure was postponed to April 2.
“We are optimistic because that day, April 2, the United States Government has announced that it will impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries of the world, if any country charges you for its exports, the United States will do it too, that’s what they have said,” he explained.
“Nothing more than Mexico is not in that area, because for 30 years we have signed two trade treaties, with which it is established that we do not have tariffs with them, nor do they with us, that is, reciprocal tariffs would not have to be applied because there are practically no tariffs from Mexico to the United States.”
The trade agreements to which Sheinbaum referred are the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the current Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
He recalled that since the signing of the T-MEC “it was conceived that this was the only option to successfully face the competition that means the economic and commercial advance of Asian countries.”
“Our proposal has even been that we not only integrate North America, but also from now on the economic and commercial integration of the entire continent, becoming the most powerful region in the world without exclusions, with prosperity and with respect for freedom, independence and sovereignty of all peoples and nations,” said Sheinbaum.
The Mexican president said that we must “always have dialogue as the option and so far it has given results (…) we are not extremists, but we are very clear that there are inalienable principles. We cannot give in to our sovereignty.”
He recalled that Mexico and the United States share a border of 3,180 kilometers (…) we cooperate in commercial, economic, friendship and we have families on both sides of the border. Our peoples contribute culturally on both sides of the border.”
He said that about 38 million Mexicans live in the United States, of which two-thirds are born in the United States.
He also pointed out that Mexico has developed a strategy to address the migratory phenomenon “without violating human rights starting with the right to life” and that the most humane way to address this phenomenon is by promoting development to prevent people from migrating out of necessity.
International
Noem appoints new Immigration Service leaders with a view to accelerating deportations
The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the United States, Kristi Noem, appointed this Sunday the two new leaders of the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) with a view to accelerating the deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Noem appointed “a new leadership of ICE to deliver the results that President (Donald) Trump and the American people legitimately demand: Todd Lyons will be the interim director of ICE and Madison Sheahan the deputy director of ICE,” according to a statement.
The DHS secretary said she had Trump’s “support” and assured that Lyons and Sheahan are “working horses, strong executors and responsible leaders who will lead the men and women of ICE to get the mandate of the American people to pursue, arrest and deport illegal foreigners.”
At the end of February, the Trump Administration dismissed the previous interim director, Caleb Vitello, whom the president himself elected, due to the growing frustration at a slow pace of deportations, and two other senior officials were also dismissed previously.
Noem also said in her statement that during the last four years ICE employees have been “prevented” from doing their job and pointed out that the service “needs a culture of accountability that it has been deprived of under the Biden Administration.”
The comments come after reports in US media that the DHS is subjecting some employees to the polygraph to determine who is behind the leaks of information about federal raids and operations against undocumented immigrants.
Noem and Trump’s so-called “border czar”, Tom Homan, have blamed the lower than projected numbers of arrests on this type of leaks about when and in which cities immigration raids were going to occur.
According to his biographies, Haynes was until now the associate executive director of ICE, in charge of the pursuit and deportation operations, while Sheahan, Noem’s collaborator when she was governor, was secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fishing.
At least two members of the Gulf Clan die in a Colombian Army operation
Sheinbaum: Mexico will collaborate so that fentanyl does not reach the US and that there is dialogue
Noem appoints new Immigration Service leaders with a view to accelerating deportations
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