Fear in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta over clashes between the Gulf Clan and Los Pachencas

In the rural area of the municipality of Ciénaga (Magdalena), there are warnings about the fighting that the self-described Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, better known as the Gulf Clan, and the Conquistadora Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra or Los Pachenca, which have been fighting over the territory since the beginning of Holy Week to continue to commit crimes with drug trafficking.

The village of La Secreta is the most affected, they reported in the Barranquilla newspaper El Heraldo, where hostilities between the two drug trafficking groups have intensified, as a result of which several families have abandoned their homes and moved to the urban areas of the town, and the neighboring municipality of Zona Bananera, as well as as well as the cities of Santa Marta and Barranquilla.

Meanwhile, on the Caracol Radio station they consulted with an anthropologist Lerber Dimas, who is an analyst of the conflict in that region of the country, who explained that those affected do not recognize themselves as displaced persons, since they left their homes voluntarily to prevent any incident in the midst of the clashes among the criminal structures.

“They have not reported, nor will they. They do not understand that this is forced displacement. For them it is serious, but it does not imply that it is displacement because no one told them: -leave this area-, but they left of their own free will because they saw risk and this is displacement and even if they interpret it differently, crime is happening”, he explained on Caracol Radio.

He added that these two groups, which emerged from the extinct Auc, are regrouping which has led to the wave of violence in that area of the Colombian Caribbean. “No one is telling them to leave, but there are no guarantees of safety or peace of mind,” he said.

In the local newspaper El Informador, they consulted with the local authorities in Ciénaga, where they stated that they had not received reports of the forced departure of people living in places affected by the armed clashes.

“Public order has been controlled in terms of the urban sector; however, in the rural area there have been some damages in La Secreta, but we make the exception that the National Army is already guarding the sector and ensuring the safety of the inhabitants,” they quoted in that medium what the secretary said municipal government, Hector Zuleta Rovira.

The official assured that the mayor of the population, Luis Tete Samper, asked the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, to strengthen the presence of the military in the area in the face of the siege of drug trafficking groups and reiterated that until now there was no information about the civilians affected.

“So far we don't have a report confirming whether people are injured or killed or if there are displaced families, as many media have said. Until we have the official report from the Army that is inspecting the area, we cannot start the relevant route; which is clear that in coordination with other entities we are implementing the necessary strategies to obtain the most information about the case,” he concluded.

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