Terrorism in Colombia

Ecuador on Monday announced the arrest of a wanted cocaine trafficker from neighboring Colombia, as President Daniel Noboa said his government's crackdown on gang violence was starting to bear fruit.

Carlos Arturo Landazuri Cortes, a "high-value target," was captured overnight after months of investigations and intelligence work, Ecuador's police chief Cesar Augusto Zapata said on X.

The excitement was understandable. Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known in Colombia as 'Otoniel', was the country's most wanted drug trafficker, a former guerrilla turned leader of El Clan del Golfo, the biggest criminal gang in Colombia. 

He was arrested in late October, 500 soldiers and 22 helicopters descending on his rural hideout in northwestern Colombia.

A dissident former leader of the FARC guerrillas was shot dead in Venezuela by other rebels, Colombian media reported on Dec. 5.

Citing Colombian and Venezuelan intelligence sources, several newspapers said Hernan Dario Velasquez, nicknamed "El Paisa" ("The Peasant"), had been ambushed in the state of Apure, on the border with Colombia.

Colombia's government announced on Oct. 24 it is working towards extraditing the country's most-wanted drug trafficker "Otoniel" to the United States, a day after he was captured in a major operation in the jungle.

The newspaper "Semana" states that Otoniel, in order to form a network for illegal trade, established connections in Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Belgium.

Colombian security forces have captured the country's most wanted drug trafficker, a rural warlord who stayed on the run for more than a decade by corrupting state officials and aligning himself with combatants on the left and right.

President Ivan Duque likened the arrest on Oct. 23 of Dairo Antonio Usuga to the capture three decades ago of Pablo Escobar.

Turkey reiterated its support on Sept. 1 for the peace process in Colombia following the recent rearmament announcement by the former top commander of the FARC.       

Colombian former rebel movement FARC said 24 of its ex-combatants had been killed since the beginning of the year, sounding a warning over continued violence threatening Colombia's fragile peace agreement.

Cuba will host peace talks between the Colombian government and leftist ELN rebels aimed at ending a five-decade conflict after Ecuador bowed out as host, negotiators said May 5.

Colombia on April 9 arrested a soon-to-be congressman from the Marxist FARC party on charges of drug trafficking, the government said, sparking outrage from the former rebel group that demobilized last year.