Colombia’s President Has Promised to Bring Down 10 Kingpins in 90 Days. Here Are the Men in His Sights.
Colombia’s most wanted men lead very different organisations. Some would be far harder to replace than others. World of Crime examines 17 possible targets and the organisations behind them.
“I have a shock plan so that within 90 days we capture or take down ten important leaders of narco-terrorism and organised crime.”
Abelardo de la Espriella made that precise promise on Caracol Radio’s 6AM W programme on 9 June. He was still a presidential candidate and was denying a broader claim attributed to him: that he could restore security across Colombia in three months. What he meant, he said, was ten high-profile criminals captured or killed, followed by the recovery of lost territory.
On 7 August, now Colombia’s new president, De la Espriella stood before troops at the Pichincha military canton in Cali and ordered the security forces to fight every criminal structure. He also promised an official list of groups that his government would classify as narco-terrorists.
By 11 August, the first scalp had been collected, De la Espriella was presenting his first results. “During military operations in Meta, alias ‘El Ruso’ or ‘El Alemán’ was killed,” he told Colombians. Three other alleged members of the same structure died in the operation. The president called Hernando Forero Mosquera, alias “El Ruso",” the principal leader of Structure 28, part of the FARC dissident coalition led by Iván Mordisco, Colombia’s most-wanted man.
El Ruso had reportedly spent more than 21 years in the insurgency, but had taken command of Structure 28 only about a month earlier. According to Cambio’s reconstruction, his established job was to maintain a logistics corridor connecting Arauca, Casanare, Guaviare and Meta. He was accused of coordinating attacks using explosives and armed drones and was being prepared to take over Structure 39 in Meta and Guaviare.
Was El Ruso the first of De la Espriella’s ten? The government has not said so.
The operation may have been planned before the inauguration, and El Ruso was absent from the most obvious speculative lists. Yet he may actually be a more valuable high-value target than several famous commanders. His value lay in logistics, technical knowledge and links between criminal structures.
But will de la Espriella make good on his promise of ten captures or killings?
After a flurry of military operations against organized crime in his first days in office, de la Espriella must now deal with the catastrophe of the earthquake which struck on August 11.
But after that, who will he target?
