International News

BOGOTA, (APP/AFP): Colombia on Thursday authorized the use of
all military force, including air strikes, against the country’s three biggest criminal gangs in a major escalation against “organized armed groups.”
Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas announced the directive late
Thursday after a special session of a Senate committee in a violence-torn region of northwestern Colombia.
“Directive 15 permits the application of all the force of the state,
without exception, against organized armed groups or groups who have major
hostile capacity,” he said.
Until now the military has been used only against leftist guerrilla
groups, who have been negotiating an end to their half-century-old conflict.
The new strategy specifically targets three major crime groups — the
Clan Usuga, Los Pelusos and Los Puntilleros.
“Those three organizations from today will be pursued autonomously or
in coordination by the armed forces and the police,” Villegas said, speaking from the region of Apartado, a stronghold of the Clan Usuga.
They have been classified as “organized armed groups” because they
use camps, uniforms, long arms — usually taken to mean weapons with longer barrels — and have a territorial presence, he said.