The US State Department has described the cartel as “heavily armed and extremely violent,” comprising “former members of terrorist organizations who failed to demobilize” after a 2016 peace deal ended a half-century of deadly conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group. The department had offered up to $5 million for information leading to Mr. Úsuga.
According to stories from people in the region, the Clan del Golfo has often seen migrants in parts of rural Colombia while using drugs – as goods to tax and control. Mr Úsuga has also been accused of recruiting minors and sexually abusing local women and girls.
Some of Mr Úsuga’s prosecutors had tried to block his extradition, holding him accountable in Colombia and revealing his knowledge of war crimes and violence. The Colombian Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, rejected the request.
Angela María Escobar, a leader of the network of women victims and professionals in Bogotá, said she is concerned that Mr Úsuga’s flight on Wednesday will cripple the country’s efforts to find justice. “They won’t make him pay for the crimes here in Colombia,” she said. “They have delivered the truth.”
Paramilitary groups in Colombia have long been linked to the country’s political class, experts say.
Some residents argued that the importance of Mr Úsuga’s arrest did not lie in its immediate impact on the cartel, which still controls parts of the country. — but rather in his “power to reveal the state’s complicity in these violent movements,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, Colombia’s senior analyst for International Crisis Group.
Mr Úsuga had testified through the country’s so-called transitional justice process, set up as part of the 2016 peace agreement to address systemic human rights violations. But the hearings were interrupted several times, according to local news reports, including the extradition.
“It looks bad in terms of what kind of justice, truth and reconciliation can be offered to victims if someone like this doesn’t even have several months to testify before being extradited,” Ms Dickinson said. “We’re not talking about a few people here. We are talking about thousands of victims.”