With a pamphlet, Los Rastrojos Costeños sent a message to Gustavo Petro

A pamphlet with the colors of the flag of the capital of the Atlantic and with figures alluding to the criminal gang Los Rastrojos Costeños, signed by the war front Víctor Carlos Pérez de Alba, circulates in the southwest of Barranquilla.

In the letter, the illegal armed group “orders” a ceasefire in several departments of the Caribbean region, according to them, due to the inauguration of the new president Gustavo Petro.

“The Víctor Carlos Pérez de Alba front informs that from this moment on, the Rastrojos Costeños stop all military action once morest the national government and the civilian population, where our organization is located in the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Magdalena, Cesar, Santander and Cauca’s Valley”, it reads in the pamphlet.

Apparently, The message goes directly to the new president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, as they assure that since his inauguration as president they end criminal activities “in favor of a negotiation.”

“From the inauguration of President Gustavo Petro, cessation of military hostilities for the commitment of a Colombia in peace and national reconciliation and in favor of a negotiation with the government”, the writing says.

Likewise, they indicated that they join the commitment already made by the guerrilla and the Clan del Golfo armed group on the cessation of “military operations.”

This is the document allegedly issued by the criminal group to negotiate with Gustavo Petro. – Photo: courtesy

The most surprising thing regarding the statement, for the authorities and for the inhabitants of the capital of Atlántico, is the intention that was made explicit in the document, since they themselves assured that this new government will guarantee the fulfillment of “their rights.”

“We know that this government is going to guarantee us the fulfillment of our rights, not like the outgoing government in search of giving results dedicated itself to looking for our members in order to assassinate them without guaranteeing their capture with due process as established by the law”, punctualize.

And in the end, they expressly address the new president of Colombia, with the following words:

“Mr. Gustavo Petro, from this moment we remain available to sit down to sign total peace.”

Faced with this, the Metropolitan Police of Barranquilla told WEEK that the document “It’s allusive, but you can’t say exactly if it’s true or not, because they haven’t confirmed it.”

However, the mayor of the city, Jaime Pumarejo, spoke out on the subject and was forceful in saying that what happened in Barranquilla had nothing to do with political movements, but with criminality and the ruthless actions of this criminal group.

“The facts that were attributed to the criminal gang Rastrojos-Costeños, they were not politically motivated, on the contrary, they were politically motivated. dark and awful”, said the local president.

‘Disarmament Plan’, the new strategy in Barranquilla to curb insecurity

In the midst of the announcements he made this Monday, August 8 the Metropolitan Police of Barranquilla regarding some arrests of presumed members of the Rastrojos Costeños, implicated and directly responsible for the homicides of public service drivers in the city and in the municipalities of Soledad and Malambo, Mayor Jaime Pumarejo revealed that they are working on a new strategy to counter insecurity.

This is a project to take away weapons from criminals or citizens who do not have legal papers for them, and in this way impute sentences of up to 9 years in prison and avoid uncontrolled homicides in the city.

“A project that we have elaborated during the last months and that in a few days we are going to launch, and it is called the Disarmament Plan, we want to take away the weapons from the bandits, we want all the weapons that are carried or possessed by the people of Barranquilla to carry a sentence”, Pumarejo said.