* In the course of military and police operations, the threat of alias El viejo, responsible for the forced displacements caused by the clashes between the ELN and the GAO Clan del Golfo for the control of the drug trafficking production chain, was neutralized.
* This individual was part of the General Staff of the Western Front of War and was reorganizing the criminal structures that commit crimes in the Colombian Pacific.
Bogotá, October 22, 2021. In the frame of the commitment to comply with the guidelines of the Bicentenary Plan Heroes de Libertad, troops of the Military Forces and the National Police, with the support of the Attorney General's Office, deal a heavy blow against the Western Front of War of the Organized Armed Group (GAO) ELN, by neutralizing alias Julio o El Viejo, ringleader of the middle and lower San Juan subregion.
The operation was carried out in the municipality of El Limón, coastal municipality of Bajo San Juan, department of Chocó, when units of the National Army after a sustained intelligence work find and neutralize this individual who was part of the General Staff of the Western Front of War.
Alias Julio o El Viejo had more than 25 years of criminal experience as a member of the Organized Armed Group ELN, and had under his command the Ernesto Che Guevara Front and the self-named Omar Silgado Special Forces Company. He was required by the judicial authorities for the crimes of homicide in protected person, kidnapping, extortion and forced displacements of different communities in Valle del Cauca and the Department of Chocó.
This individual was responsible for the confrontation that the ELN has been engaging against the GAO Clan del Golfo for the control of drug trafficking routes in the Pacific region. He was accused of carrying out terrorist attacks against Colombian Navy ships stationed on the San Juan River, as well as of the illegal exploitation of mining sites in the middle and lower San Juan. He participated in the terrorist attack on 17 December 2005 in San Marino, Department of Chocó, against a police station, which resulted in the death of six police officers.
With the death in the course of military operations of alias Julio or El Viejo, the Military Forces manage to destabilize the strategic plans of the Western Front of War of the ELN, reducing the materialization of crimes such as homicide, extortion, kidnapping, and terrorist operations against the Military Forces.
