Petro leaves office with Colombia’s largest armed group still standing
As the president prepares to leave office, military attacks on the Gulf Clan have intensified, while his flagship peace negotiations never got off the ground
With less than a month left in Gustavo Petro’s presidency, he is closing out his administration by stepping up military operations against the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug-trafficking organization. In just three days, ...
With less than a month left in Gustavo Petro’s presidency, he is closing out his administration by stepping up military operations against the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug-trafficking organization. In just three days, the armed forces launched two attacks against the group in the north of the country.
In southern Bolívar, military troops killed “Diamante,” one of the group’s regional commanders, in an operation in an area rich in gold deposits, marked by a limited state presence and a long history of armed conflict. In a statement posted on social media, the Army’s Seventh Division described the operation as a “strategic strike” against the group’s camp.
About 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the southwest, in the municipality of Amalfi, in Antioquia, the Colombian Army and the Colombian Aerospace Force bombed another camp. It was the ninth airstrike against the organization during Petro’s four-year term and one that marks the level of confrontation reached ahead of the presidential transition.
In this other mining region, where armed conflict is also deeply rooted, helicopters and explosions were heard for hours over the weekend. Authorities said the target was the Roberto Vargas Gutiérrez structure, one of the Gulf Clan’s most active factions in a subregion historically contested by the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and other armed groups.
Authorities reported the deaths of two men allegedly linked to the organization and the destruction of two camps containing eight makeshift shelters, power generators, communications equipment, an antenna and materials used to manufacture improvised explosives. The operation was part of a military campaign dubbed Operation Avenger and the 25th bombing raid ordered by Petro during his presidency, nine of which targeted the Gulf Clan, according to Defense Ministry figures.
On Sunday, a day after the bombing, security forces carried out an operation against illegal mining in Segovia, another gold-producing municipality in northeastern Antioquia. The operation sparked unrest that left one person dead and two others injured.
Conservative Governor Andrés Julián Rendón blamed the Gulf Clan for the disturbances, describing them as “retaliation” for operations targeting illegal mining, one of the group’s largest revenue sources. By some estimates, it generates more income than drug trafficking.
The government’s military actions against the Gulf Clan come amid the troubled negotiations it launched with the group under Petro’s “total peace” policy. Contacts began in 2022, one month after Petro took office. Formal talks, however, were not established until September 2025 in Doha, Qatar, after three years of disputes and setbacks.
While the left-wing government sought to disarm the country’s largest armed group, the Gulf Clan expanded rapidly. According to military intelligence, its ranks grew from around 4,000 members in 2022 to nearly 10,000 by 2025.
Over the same period, its territorial reach doubled, from 145 municipalities in 13 departments to 296 municipalities in 17 departments, according to the Ideas for Peace Foundation. Part of that growth stems from the group’s evolution into a criminal “holding company” that has diversified beyond drug trafficking into illegal mining, extortion, human trafficking and smuggling.
Despite the tensions, negotiations produced several agreements. One of the most significant called for the group — known internally as the Gaitanista Army of Colombia — to concentrate 400 fighters in agreed and protected zones in the municipality of Tierralta, Córdoba, in the same region where the recent clashes occurred. However, the relocation process stalled after Noticias Caracol published recordings in which former peace commissioner Danilo Rueda appeared to make promises to Gulf Clan representatives outside the formal negotiating framework.
The crisis deepened after the June 21 election victory of Abelardo de la Espriella, an outspoken critic of the total peace policy and of any negotiations with the Gulf Clan. Four days later, the president-elect gave armed groups a one-month ultimatum to “organize their submission to the rule of law,” without offering concessions or incentives.
The Gulf Clan responded with a letter acknowledging that submitting to state authority would be “inevitable,” while demanding legal and security guarantees. It also announced a temporary suspension of extortion activities in more than 50 municipalities across Antioquia, Córdoba, Sucre and Bolívar, from July 10 to October 10.
Amid the transition, Governor Rendón urged the incoming president to resume airstrikes against the top leaders of armed groups and reject any peace negotiations. On July 10, one day before the Amalfi bombing, Rendón unveiled a most-wanted list of 19 criminal leaders in Antioquia, Colombia’s wealthiest department. Seven of them belong to the Gulf Clan. The initiative is part of a strategy he has dubbed Operation Hunter.
With less than a month remaining before Petro’s total peace policy draws to a close, the sounds — and rumors — of military offensives aimed at dismantling illegal armed groups are once again echoing across Colombia.
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