Wave of police killings in Colombia copies drug lord Pablo Escobar's terror tactics
A graphic of police officers recently killed in Colombia. Credit: Colombian National Police
Nineteen police officers and 12 soldiers have been killed by armed groups in Colombia since April 15, in what President Gustavo Petro has called a 'plan pistola' – a tactic popularized by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar that seeks to terrorize law enforcement.
According to police, armed groups are putting cash bounties on officers' heads, a strategy Escobar used in the 1990s during peak cartel violence. Security experts say the killings are a backlash by groups like the Gaitanist Army of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, which have suffered losses in recent government offensives.
In the face of the threats, the National Police reaffirmed its commitment to security, with its director, General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, telling the Miami Herald that 'this institution is compelled by the memory of our murdered comrades to continue confronting any expression of crime.'
In total, at least 21 police officers were murdered in Colombia in the first four months of the year, four times the number killed in the same period last year, according to Colombian media.
'Organized crime has dusted off an old, perverse and desperate practice of the sort Pablo Escobar used to try to prevent the fall of his cocaine empire: putting a price on the lives of the country's police officers,' Triana wrote in a newspaper column on Sunday.
Bullet hole in government office in Quibdó, Colombia. Credit: Alfie Pannell
The assassinations are the latest escalation in what many analysts describe as a deteriorating security situation in Colombia, which has seen intensified conflict in several regions this year.
In February, Petro appointed Pedro Sánchez as defense minister – the first military official to hold the role in over three decades – signaling a shift away from the president's 'total peace' plan that sought to negotiate a settlement with Colombia's armed groups.
'Since the appointment of the new Defense Minister, there has been a very notable and clear increase in offensive operations against… [armed] groups,' said Elizabeth Dickinson, senior Colombia analyst at the Brussels-based Crisis Group.
The current plan pistola is seen as a backlash against this security campaign, which has killed multiple leaders of armed groups.
General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, Director of Colombian National Police. Credit: Colombian National Police
Authorities allege the Gaitanist Army launched the plan after security forces killed one of its top commanders, José Miguel Demoya Hernández, alias Chirimoya, on April 5.
'What we are seeing is the government is gaining ground and these organizations feel threatened,' said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a security consultancy.
In an X post on Tuesday, Petro specifically blamed the Gaitanist Army, which has its roots in the demobilized paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, active in the 1990s and 2000s.
'In response to the downfall of several of its leaders, [the group] has decided to kill the children of the people,' the president wrote.
Sánchez, the defense minister, said the killings were carried out by sicarios, or paid hitmen, with police reporting that the Gaitanist Army, Colombia's largest criminal organization, is offering up to $3 million Colombian pesos — about $700 — per officer killed.
A lawyer for the group declined to comment.
The Gaitanist Army's reported bounties mimic Escobar's strategy in the 1990s, when he offered rewards for killing police officers as part of a terror campaign against the government. From 1990-93, at least 153 police officers were killed in the drug lord's home city of Medellín, according to Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory.
It remains unclear which group initiated the plan pistola, with no organization publicly claiming credit for the killings.
While both police and soldiers have been targeted, the police are a 'softer target', Dickinson said. They tend to be less heavily armed or protected, and usually operate in civilian spaces.
'This has been sort of the easy target for armed groups to send a message to the government without the same risks that they face if they were to try the same thing against soldiers,' the analyst said.
Five of the 15 officers murdered during the two weeks in April were off duty, Petro said.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Sebastián Barros
Long Visual Press/Abaca/Sipa USA
Triana, the national police director, was defiant in the face of the attacks, telling the Herald that police have arrested 217 Gaitanist Army members since the plan pistola began.
'We continue to strengthen the operational security of our police force, adjusting routines, duties, and casework, especially in high complexity zones,' Triana said.
The police have also begun taking exceptional measures, allowing officers to take their service weapons home and, in some rural regions, confining them to their stations.
Soldiers are on maximum alert in several departments, where the army ordered them to remain in their barracks.
Meanwhile, Petro maintained that the state will not back down from its offensive against armed groups.
Said the president on X: 'We will not retreat.'
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