BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombians closed shops and stayed off the roads yesterday in parts of the North after threats by one of the country’s main drug gangs sparked fear of violent retribution for the killing of the group’s leader, police said.
“We’ve captured 11 people who were involved in distributing pamphlets and intimidating the population into closing their shops and impeding their free movement by road,” Police General Jose Roberto Leon told reporters.
On New Year’s Day, Colombian police killed the leader of the Urabenos drug cartel – one of Colombia’s main gangs, along with Los Rastrojos, Los Paisas and Las Aguilas Negras.
Fear of retribution by the Urabenos stopped normal activities in areas of the departments of Sucre, Cordoba, Choco, Antioquia and Magdalena, police and local media said.
The Andean nation has faced decades of cocaine-fueled bloodshed involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and government forces. While violence has fallen since 2002, powerful new criminal bands made up of ex-paramilitary groups have become a main new threat for Colombia.
Many of those areas affected by threats on Thursday were once dominated by right-wing paramilitary groups, some of whom joined criminal gangs after demobilizing earlier this century.
