Colombia suspends warrants for 29 Clan del Golfo leaders in peace talks

Colombia suspended arrest and extradition warrants for 29 Clan del Golfo leaders as part of a peace track that now hinges on whether the state can lower violence without strengthening the country’s biggest illegal armed group. The move includes Jobanis de Jesus Avila Villadiego, known as Chiquito Malo, who is wanted by the United States on drug-trafficking and related charges. The government also said about 400 combatants would begin entering temporary relocation zones on June 25 in Tierralta, Córdoba, and Nuevo Belén de Bajirá, Chocó.

The suspension is tied to the Espacio de Conversación Sociojurídico process and to Law 2272 of 2022, the legal framework President Gustavo Petro has used to advance his total peace agenda. Petro, a former guerrilla member, came to office promising to end a conflict that has killed more than 450,000 people over six decades. But the Clan del Golfo talks have moved slowly, and the latest concessions underline the central gamble in the strategy: Bogotá may gain a pause in violence, better access to commanders, and a clearer path to concentrate fighters in designated areas, but the public absorbs the risk that a powerful criminal network gets breathing room without giving up much leverage.

The tradeoff is sharpened by the group’s scale and resilience. Clan del Golfo, also called the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia or Ejército Gaitanista de Colombia, was formed in 2005 by paramilitary commanders who refused to demobilize with the AUC. ABColombia says its ranks grew from 3,803 members in 2018 to 6,015 in 2023, then to an estimated 9,000 by April 2024. It operates in about one-third of Colombia’s 1,103 municipalities and is deeply embedded in drug trafficking, extortion, illegal mining, human trafficking, and local legal and illegal economies.

The United States has responded by hardening its stance. In December 2025, Washington designated Clan del Golfo as both a foreign terrorist organization and a global terrorist group, saying it uses cocaine trafficking to finance violence and is responsible for attacks on officials, security forces, and civilians. In April 2026, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed a fifth superseding indictment against Chiquito Malo, adding narcoterrorism and material-support charges.

The Colombian government said the current phase of talks began in September 2025 in Qatar and later included meetings in Acandí, Chocó, and Cartagena, Bolívar with local authorities, social leaders, ethnic communities, academics, international organizations, and state entities. Officials also said the process includes protection commitments for children and a census of the group’s ranks to ensure minors are not among its filas. Whether those measures produce real disarmament or merely formalize a ceasefire with a still-expanding armed force will define the political cost of Petro’s peace strategy.