The director general of the National Police, Henry Sanabria, clarified on Monday that the presidential decrees on armed groups under Gustavo Petro’s total peace law do not suspend arrest warrants for the leaders of the Gulf Clan, but rather the operations to find them.
«The decree establishes the suspension of police operations but not the suspension of police actions as a result of their constitutional and legal mission», explained Sanabria in declarations to Blu Radio.
«They are two different things: suspension of police operations, within the decrees, and another issue is the suspension of arrest warrants» since they have «different time limits», said the general director of the Police.
«In the event that one of these people appears in a police procedure, if they have an arrest warrant, they will be deprived of their liberty and placed at the disposal of the prosecutor», he pointed out.
The Gulf Clan is one of the four armed groups with which the government of President Petro appears to have reached a preliminary agreement to interrupt hostilities in order to reach some kind of peace agreement.
The suspension of operations against Clan del Golfo leaders is in effect until June 2023. Among those wanted by law enforcement are Jobanis de Jesus Avila Villadiego, alias ‘Chiquito Malo’, the new head of the group following the arrest of Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias ‘Otoniel’, or Jose Miguel de Moya Hernandez, alias ‘Chirimoya’.
At the same time, the police chief stressed that in a scenario of a possible attack by the Gulf Clan against the civilian population or the authorities, they would not remain «arms folded» and would act to «repel this criminal action».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
