The Clan del Golfo ("The Gulf Clan"), also known as the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (; AGC) or Gaitanist Army of Colombia (; EGC) and formerly called and , is a prominent Colombian neo-paramilitary group and currently the country's largest drug cartel.
The AGC is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Colombia. The crime syndicate recruits its members mainly from former right-wing paramilitaries and is estimated to have around 6,000 men under arms. In addition to drug trafficking, the AGC is also involved in illegal mining and racketeering and is responsible for countless homicides and extortion incidents. It is based in the Urabá region of Antioquia, and is involved in the Colombian armed conflict.
The AGC is one of the organizations that appeared after the demobilization of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). In late 2011, the AGC declared war on Los Rastrojos over control of the drug trade in Medellín. Their main source of income is cocaine trafficking, as they appear to be the largest distributors of cocaine in Colombia. As of late 2021, it is considered the most powerful criminal organization in Colombia, having some 3,000 members in the inner circle of the organization in 2016, with its current numbers unknown. Its rivals include the National Liberation Army (ELN). The AGC has recruited accomplices at the highest level of the military hierarchy, such as generals and colonels.
Made up of former mid-level paramilitary leaders, the AGC has increased homicide rates in Colombia's northern departments. It is considered the more ambitious and ruthless of Colombia's major drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). The group's power base is currently in the Antioquia, Sucre and Córdoba Departments, with a presence in various other departments and regions in the country, including major cities such as Medellín and Bogotá. The AGC is likely the largest distributor of cocaine in the world, having formed direct partnerships with drug cartels in Mexico and European crime groups, such as 'Ndrangheta and the Albanian mafia, who profit from the illegal cocaine trade with the AGC.
In June 2020, the National Police of Colombia announced that former member Marlon Gregorio Celis Caballero, aliases "" or "Felipe," had become the new leader of the Clan del Golfo by April 2020. At the time of this revelation, the Clan del Golfo reduced its drug trafficking route to the Caribbean region and also named a Ciénaga native with the alias "Diana" as the new head trafficker. However, the Clan del Golfo has also been distracted by a direct conflict with FARC dissidents. On October 23, 2021, the group's leader Dario Antonio Úsuga, better known as Otoniel, was captured. At the time of his arrest, Otoniel was Colombia's most wanted drug lord. Following the arrest of Otoniel, then President of Colombia Iván Duque described the weakened Clan del Golfo as "over" and claimed that "its days are numbered." , the cartel is led by , alias "", and reportedly has 7,000 members.
Origins
For the Clan del Golfo, originally named "" (the denonym of Urabá), the northwestern region near the Colombia–Panama border is highly prized for drug trafficking, as it offers access to the Caribbean and Pacific coast from the departments of Antioquia and Chocó. However, the origins of the group can be traced elsewhere to Colombia's Eastern Plains, where Daniel Rendón Herrera, better known as "Don Mario," once handled finances for the paramilitary group Bloque Centauros.
Cocaine traffickers had long competed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for territory and influence in the Eastern Plains. In 1997, top paramilitary commanders Carlos and Vicente Castaño began sending troops to the area to co-opt the drug business from the guerrillas. In 2001, the Castaños sold one of their armed groups, later known as Bloque Centauros, to another warlord, Miguel Arroyave, allegedly for US$7 million. It was Arroyave who convinced Rendón Herrera to come work for him. Under Rendón's supervision, the Centauros became one of the wealthiest factions within the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia ( – AUC). The Centauros trafficked cocaine, propped up local politicians, extorted ranchers and farmers, and collected security taxes for products ranging from alcohol to petroleum.
However, the Centauros soon began clashing with a rival paramilitary group, the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Casanare ( – ACC). The ACC is one of the oldest vigilante groups in Colombia, headed by Héctor Germán Buitrago Parada, alias "Martín Llanos." It was allegedly ACC fighters who first began calling the Centauros "those from Urabá," "Paisas," or "Urabeños," all references to the Antioquia region where many of the paramilitaries hailed from.
By 2004, the war between the ACC and the Centauros had left an estimated 3,000 people dead. Rendón fled the Eastern Plains in June after a falling out with Arroyave. Rendón then found refuge in the Urabá region, where his brother Freddy, alias "," headed his own paramilitary group, the Bloque Elmer Cardenas. Shortly afterward, Arroyave was ambushed and killed by his former allies, including Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, alias "."
When Freddy Rendón chose to demobilize in 2006, his brother "Don Mario" seized the opportunity to expand his drug trafficking operations in the Urabá gulf. He recruited many of the fighters once under Freddy's command, as well as ex-members from the defunct AUC. From Urabá, the DTO deployed go-fast boats loaded with cocaine to Central America or the Caribbean, with some estimates putting it at 10 to 20 boats per week. By 2008, Rendón Herrera was one of the richest and most-wanted traffickers in Colombia.
As the AUC blocs were officially demobilized, this new paramilitary groups called themselves Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces or Don Mario's Black Eagles in an attempt to legitimize their actions.
Rendón attempted to expand his empire, moving into southern Córdoba, the Lower Cauca region in northern Antioquia and even venturing into Medellin, long controlled by the Oficina de Envigado. Rendón's men soon began clashing with the Paisas, then a rural, armed wing of the Oficina. Police attributed at least 3,000 homicides to Rendón's organization between 2007 and 2009. On April 15, 2009, a team of 200 police commandos captured Rendón on a farm in rural Urabá.
Since Rendón's capture, the remnants of his organization had fallen under the control of the Usuga-David brothers, Juan de Dios and Dario Antonio, two former mid-ranking paramilitaries believed to have worked with Rendón since the 1990s. The two started with an estimated 250 men following Rendón's arrest and have since managed to grow exponentially.
On January 1, 2012, Juan de Dios Usuga-David, alias "Giovany," was killed in a police raid on a ranch in the Chocó department. Three Clan del Golfo members with him were injured and arrested during the shootout with the police as well. In a display of strength, the Clan del Golfo organized a series of coordinated strikes protesting his death in northern Antioquia, handing out fliers which referred to the group's former name, the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces. Clan del Golfo also signaled their intention to respond aggressively to their leader's death when they publicly offered a $1,000 reward for each police officer killed in Antioquia, a public relations strategy best associated with kingpin Pablo Escobar. His brother Dario Antonio Úsuga David, alias "Otoniel," afterward succeeded him as head of the cartel. On October 23, 2021, Otoniel was apprehended by Colombian military forces.
They take their name from Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a former Colombian activist leader.
Territory and presence
According to a November 2021 InsightCrime report, the Clan del Golfo reportedly has a strong presence in the Colombian departments of Antioquia, Córdoba and Sucre, a moderate presence in the departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Chocó, Nariño, Bolívar, Atlántico, Magdalena, Norte de Santander, and a low or minimal presence in the departments of Cesar, Santander, Boyacá, La Guajira, Risaralda, Casanare, Meta, and Vichada.
Additionally, on March 14, 2024, an unnamed alleged member of Clan del Golfo was arrested by USBP agents in El Paso, Texas, indicating potential transnational activities.
Organization and structure The Clan del Golfo relies on at least 1,200 members in their top level of command. Their base is near and around the Urabá gulf, including the Tierralta and Valencia municipalities in Cordoba and the eleven municipalities in the Urabá sub-region in Antioquia. The arrest of Urabá regional leader Eduardo Ortiz Tuberquia, alias "El Indio," in May 2017 and the deaths of second-in-command, Roberto Vargas Gutiérrez, alias "Gavilán," in September 2017 and military boss Luis Orlando Padierma, alias "Inglaterra," in November 2017 gave overall leader Dario Antonio Úsuga David, alias "Otoniel," tenuous authority over the Clan del Golfo, with regional leaders gaining more direct authority over their territories.
The top command deploys teams of trained, armed men to rural areas vital for drug-trafficking operations. These include zones with natural seaports along the Caribbean coast or areas where coca base must be bought, like Caucasia or Tarazá in Antioquia (InSight has also heard reports of a Urabeño cell in Medellín). These cells then attempt to recruit local informants, especially collaborators who can inform them of the actions of the security forces.
Clan del Golfo are also known to contract local street gangs, who help with the retail and mid-level distribution of cocaine, extortion, and select assassinations. By "sponsoring" other low-level gangs, this group has been able to maintain small, select cells of highly experienced men in the field, responsible for ever-larger swathes of territory. There are also indications that the group has been successful enough in terms of recruitment to move into other key territories like Barrancabermeja, Santander, one of Colombia's oil towns long prized by the Rastrojos.
When it comes to drug trafficking, the Clan del Golfo are similar to rival DTOs, like the Rastrojos or the Paisas, in that they are uninterested in controlling the entire chain of drug production. However, they have not proved as adept as the Rastrojos when it comes to brokering key alliances with other major players in the drug trade. Clan del Golfo will buy coca base from the FARC, but the two groups will not collaborate much further than that. Military discipline is a key factor that makes Clan del Golfo a competive organization so far: they have proved immune to the kind of infighting tearing apart the Paisas or the Oficina. Clan del Golfo may yet prove capable of expanding their operations beyond the Caribbean coast and northern Colombia, if they are not handcuffed by their war with the Rastrojos.
The organization has emerged from paramilitarism and continues to specifically target political parties, unions, and leftist associations. It is one of the main perpetrators of selective assassinations of community and social leaders, leftist political activists and forced displacement of people. In October 2017, it published a pamphlet entitled "Pistol Plan against the Patriotic Union" in which it threatened members of this political party or NGOs with death.