Uneasy calm returns to Colombia’s violence-hit Santa Marta

Stores and schools closed, and drivers mostly stayed off the roads Wednesday as the Colombian city of Santa Marta limped back to normal after a wave of drug-gang violence prompted a deployment of army troops.

The Caribbean city popular with tourists was calm but tense a day after gang members attacked businesses following the killing by the security forces of one of their leaders.

The self-styled Conquering Self-Defence Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN), an armed group with roots in Colombia’s now-defunct paramilitary movement, was reacting to the killing of its second-in-command on the orders of Colombia’s new right-wing president, Abelardo de la Espriella.

De la Espriella has gone to war against Colombia’s myriad drug-trafficking groups since taking office last month.

On Tuesday, ACSN gunmen opened fire on businesses and set fire to vehicles in a bid to shut down a city where the gang has rampantly extorted money from businesses.

De la Espriella reacted to the flare-up in violence by deploying troops to the city on the outskirts of Tayrona National Park, a popular tourist destination overlooking the Caribbean.

On Tuesday night, he travelled to Santa Marta to oversee the security operation, dressed in khaki green with a pistol on his hip.

The tough-talking right-winger vowed to send ACSN members “to hell in a body bag”.

The city’s mayor, Carlos Pinedo, said Wednesday on Caracol Radio that at least 500 soldiers and 600 police officers had been deployed to keep the peace.

He said the city had been bracing for violence after De la Espriella announced Tuesday that the security forces had killed 13 ACSN “narcoterrorists” in an operation by the police and air force in the mountains above Santa Marta.

In the end, Pinedo said the disturbances were “minimal”.

Body bags

But residents and business owners contacted by AFP expressed fear and uncertainty over the security situation, amid rumours that the ACSN had ordered a three-day curfew.

Nine people have been arrested over Tuesday’s violence, according to authorities.

De la Espriella, a US-backed millionaire lawyer, narrowly won June’s presidential run-off as a hardline law-and-order candidate.

He has ordered a barrage of airstrikes on guerrilla camps and made a habit of holding press conferences next to the corpses of slain gunmen laid out in body bags.

The ACSN is one of the many armed groups that De la Espriella’s leftist predecessor, Gustavo Petro, had engaged in failed peace talks with.

De la Espriella has broken off the talks and vowed to crush the groups militarily.

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.