Sinaloa Cartel intensifies its presence in Colombia

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The Sinaloa Cartel, which in recent years has intensified its presence in areas of Colombia where cocaine and the coca leaf are produced and which has strengthen its criminal relationship with the Colombian guerilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and with dissenters from the FARC , threatened to kill indigenous leaders and c ommunities of farmers of that country over the control they exert in south-western Colombia , which complicates international drug trafficking .

The claim was made by the non-state Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC), that alerted that the cartel warned the indigenous guard , a security organism to defend the land, autonomy, and culture of the 10 native communities of the area, that “if they don’t quit the territorial control they are going to slaughter them like animals.

“The threat from the Sinaloa Cartel was detected in social networks ,” asserted the counsel. “We report cogently to the national and international community the persistent and systematic threats against those who choose peace , of which authorities and the indigenous guard in the north of Cauca, as well as communities of farmers, are being an object of,” it mentioned.

The CRIC urged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations and th e Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OEA) , among other agencies, to “control” the denounced situation.

The homicide of social activists worsened in Colombia. The Colombian Office of the Ombudsman added 462 social leaders and human rights defenders murdered from January 1st 2016 to February 28th, 2019.

Consulted by EL UNIVERSAL , the Department of Anti-Narcotics of the Colombia National Police said that “we do not have the case” of the CRIC. The situation will be exposed to Colombian state agencies , announced the council, after confirming it received threats from dissenters of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who rejected joining the peace process. Colombian authorities confirmed links between the ELN and renegades from the FARC with the Sinaloa cartel.

In documents of which EL UNIVERSAL has copies, the Colombia Attorney General’s Office and the Chancellery warned on January 2017 about the change in travel dynamics of Mexicans to Colombian territory since 2014 , by detecting persons, originally from Mexico, who go to areas of illicit cultivation of coca lea f that “are not touristic.”