Colombia deploys 1,100 troops to Santa Marta after armed strike closes city

Armed strike shutters Caribbean resort

Streets across Santa Marta remained mostly deserted on Wednesday as commercial activity and public transport ground to a halt following threats from the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN). The illegal armed group, also known as Los Pachenca, declared a 48-hour armed strike to retaliate against a government operation that killed its second-in-command, José Luis Pérez Villanueva, known as "Cholo." Gunmen moved through neighbourhoods on Tuesday, shooting at storefronts and setting fire to cargo trucks, taxis, and public buses on the 11 de Noviembre bridge and near the Metropolitan Police command. Schools suspended classes, and merchants kept metal shutters down across the city, whose population is estimated between 480,000 and 600,000 across official and regional reports. The United States Embassy in Bogota issued a security alert advising personnel to avoid Santa Marta, Magdalena, and neighbouring La Guajira.

Military deployment and presidential patrols

President Abelardo De La Espriella ordered the militarization of Santa Marta, deploying 1,100 security personnel to clear transit corridors and restore commercial traffic. Santa Marta Mayor Carlos Pinedo confirmed that the detachment includes 600 police officers and 500 soldiers. Colombian Air Force Kfir fighter jets and military helicopters carried out surveillance flights over the city and the surrounding foothills of the Sierra Nevada. De La Espriella, who assumed the presidency 46 days earlier on a platform pledging an iron fist against organized crime, travelled to Santa Marta on Tuesday night to lead street patrols in the Cristo Rey and Gaira districts while wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a sidearm.

De La Espriella addressed the security operations during his inspection tour.

They are using relatively minor incidents to instill fear in society, to force businesses to close, and to keep people in a state of fear, and that is something we cannot allow.

Wave of arrests across four departments

While the Ministry of Defence stated that roadblocks were cleared and transport was beginning to recover, local shopkeepers and transport unions remained hesitant to resume regular operations. Magdalena Governor María Margarita Guerra walked through the public market handing out anti-extortion flyers to encourage vendors to reopen shuttered stalls. Access roads to Tayrona National Natural Park saw burned buses on Tuesday, though the park and the local airport remained open under military protection. De La Espriella announced that security forces had detained approximately 76 individuals linked to the ACSN across the departments of Magdalena, La Guajira, Cesar, and Atlántico. He ordered the detainees transferred to maximum-security prisons outside the Caribbean region to prevent them from coordinating illicit activities from local cells.

Leadership losses and group background

The current confrontation follows consecutive strikes against the ACSN leadership hierarchy. Security forces killed the group's primary commander, Naín Andrés Pérez Toncela, alias "Bendito Menor," in an earlier September police operation alongside three companions, before the raid in the rural Guachaca district eliminated Pérez Villanueva and between 6 and 12 other members. The group, numbering over 800 members and currently commanded by Fredy Castillo Carrillo, alias "Pinocho," originated in the early 2000s as a faction of the demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. Financing itself through cocaine trafficking routes to Central America and extortion across the tourism and transport sectors, the group had previously engaged in peace overtures under former President Gustavo Petro, during which Pérez Villanueva served as a designated peace facilitator. De La Espriella has since suspended all negotiations with armed groups.