Eliecer Palomeque Córdoba, known by the alias Negro Juan, would be the ringleader of the organized armed group Armando Ríos, accused of carrying out terrorist attacks and operations against the Military Forces, in addition to the kidnapping of a UN official in 2017. He would be responsible for at least six murders of civilians in the department of Guaviare, the illicit recruitment of minors and the collection of money extorted from ranchers and merchants in the south-east of Colombia.
Alias Negro Juan, according to intelligence information, had more than 17 years of criminal experience in the departments of Meta, Vichada, Guainía, Vaupés and Guaviare and the border area between the departments of Amazonas and Caquetá.
Since 2003, there is information that he would have formed the terrorist support network of the extinct Front Primero Armando Ríos, and six years later as a low-level guerrilla of the extinct FARC, five years later, he would be in charge of committing crimes such as the launch of explosive devices to the Infantry Battalion No. 24 Calamar, and the Infantry Battalion No. 51 in Miraflores (Guaviare).
In 2016, he would have been the representative of alias Miller’s financial group, participating in a terrorist action against the National Police on the Cartucho sector of the villages Salto Gloria and La Paz in the municipality of El Retorno (Guaviare), leaving four members of the security forces injured. A year later, he would be appointed as the head of the finance group, and according to intelligence, he had the task of continuing to commit crimes through extortion in the area of the former 44th Front; that same year, he would have participated in the kidnapping of a UN official.
By then, he would be a key man in the security of alias Iván Mordisco, so he was going to be the ringleader in charge of his security. In the year 2020, after knowing in depth the municipalities of Calamar and Miraflores, (Guaviare), he is named as the third head of finance who commit crimes such as extortion absent ranchers, merchants and private institutions.
According to intelligence information in 2022 he would have been named as the ringleader of the organized armed group – residual, Structure Primera Armando Ríos, after the disappearance of the whereabouts of Néstor Gregorio Vera, alias Iván Mordisco. This same year he allegedly ordered six murders of civilians that occurred in the Barranquillita villages of the municipality of Miraflores, La Cristalina of the municipality of Calamar, and he would be responsible for a terrorist operation against a consortium in the department of Guaviare, through extortion.
According to the authorities, alias Negro Juan, would in the same way be in charge of recruiting children and adolescents in the villages of La Unilla, San Lucas, Caño Lajas and La Libertad, La Primavera, La Cristalina, San Miguel, Termales Alto, Termales Bajo, Las Damas, La Fortaleza in the municipalities of El Retorno and Calamar in the department of Guaviare.
With this result, the National Army, the Colombian Navy, the National Police and the Attorney General's Office directly hit the multi-criminal and instability factor of the GAO-r Primera structure, being the main ringleader who was arrested in the middle of a raid carried out after extensive monitoring and evidence collection in the municipality of Villavicencio, Meta.
The Security forces work tirelessly on the protection of the lives of the most vulnerable civilians, as well as of the peasant and indigenous communities that suffer the problem of the recruitment of minors remaining in the middle of the conflict violating their rights.
In the same way, troops contribute to the significant decrease in the collection of money extorted from businessmen, ranchers and government institutions in the departments of Meta, Vichada, Guainía, Vaupés, Guaviare, and the border area of the departments of Amazonas and Caquetá.
Source: Press, National Army,
