Results of the military operation strengthen the protection of social leaders and peace signatories
Within the framework of Operation THEMIS 2.0, a comprehensive strategy of the Ministry of National Defense aimed at structurally weakening the residual organized armed groups and working to increase the security of Colombians, troops of the Twenty-Seventh Brigade of the Sixth Division of Colombian National Army, through the Putumayo Military GAULA (ANTI-EXTORTION AND ANTI-KIDNAPPING GROUP) and in coordination with the National Police, reported the capture of an individual listed as one of the most wanted in the department of Caquetá.
This individual was wanted on a court order issued in 2024 for the crimes of aggravated homicide, illegal carrying of firearms and association to commit aggravated crimes. According to the military intelligence and the investigations carried out by the authorities, the arrested man would be a member of the GAOr Structure Comandos de Frontera, where he was the ringleader of a mobile group with heavy criminal interference in rural areas and strategic routes of the departments of Caquetá and Putumayo.
This individual was not only accused of coordinating operations of intimidation, extortion and forced displacement against peasant communities, but in the same way of directly participating in targeted killings against social leaders, human rights defenders and signatories of the peace agreement. These behaviors led him to be included in the most wanted list of Caquetá (Plan THEMIS), with a reward of up to $500 million pesos for information that would led to his arrest.
The criminal experience of this individual evidences a rising criminal career within the illegal structure. His connection dates back to 2018, when he joined as a rank guerrilla under the command of alias Oso or Osorio in the rural area of La Montañita, department of Caquetá. Since then, he has allegedly participated in the murders of social leaders in the municipalities of Doncello, El Paujil and La Montañita. In 2019, his operations were aimed at restricting the mobility of rural communities in the villages of Sabaleta and Fraguita, as well as in sectors of Puerto Guzmán, Putumayo.
By 2020 and 2023, he consolidated himself as person in charge of the systematic collection of money from extortion against different productive groups and merchants in municipalities of the departments of Caquetá and Putumayo, strengthening the organization's illicit finances. That same year, he joined the finance group of the GAOr Comandos of the Border in Caquetá. By 2021 he was appointed guerrilla's replacement, and in 2023 he assumed the role of ringleader in areas of San José del Fragua (Caquetá) and Piedmont (Cauca). Finally, in 2025, he was as a guerrilla ringleader in lower Putumayo, from where he coordinated criminal operations related to drug trafficking and the expansion of illegal routes.
His arrest constitutes a strategic blow against the GAOr Comandos de Frontera structure, as it directly hits the sources of financing derived from drug trafficking, extortion and the exploitation of illegal mobility routes in Caquetá, Putumayo and Cauca. It in the same way destabilizes the mechanisms of control and coercion that this group exercised over the inhabitants, weakening its capacity for intimidation and reducing the risk of new violent operations against social leaders and peasant communities.
The authorities estimate that through this operation it was possible to reduce the levels of selective homicides and forced displacements that were generating anxiety in the region, in addition to interrupting the execution of logistical and criminal coordination that were imposed under threat to local peasants and merchants.
The arrested man was put into custody of the Local Prosecutor's Office 10 of the Special Investigation Unit based in Florencia, department of Caquetá, an institution that will conduct the corresponding judicial process so that he answers for the crimes he is charged with.
Source: Press – National Army
