In June of last year, President Gustavo Petro surprised Colombia by sharing a stage in a square in Medellin with several leaders of criminal gangs, taken out of their prisons expressly for that event. Now the president once again stirs the feelings of the nation by getting the judicial authorities to suspend the arrest warrants of several criminals, with which Colombia begins to write an unexpected and dangerous chapter of its history.
“The individuals whose suspension of arrest warrants is requested coincide with those that the President of the Republic designated as primary and secondary spokespersons of the Organized Armed Structures of High Impact Crime of Medellin and the Aburra Valley, as is confirmed by reviewing Presidential Resolutions 39 of May 29, 2023 and 094 of April 8, 2025,” explained the Office of the Attorney General.
Colombia’s Petro gets authorities to suspend arrest warrants for criminals
The beneficiaries of the measure, feared criminals, are Albert Antonio Henao Acevedo, alias “Alber;” Andres D’maria Oliveros Correa, alias “Mundo Malo;” Andres Felipe Rodas Montoya, alias “Yerbas;” Carlos Augusto Correa Lopez, alias “Mono Pepe;” Dayron Alberto Munoz Torres, alias “el Indio;” Elder Darbey Zapata Rivera, alias “Grande Pa;” and Fredy Alexander Henao Arias, alias “Naranjo”.
Also included are Freyner Alfonso Ramirez Garcia, alias “Carlos Pesebre;” Gustavo Adolfo Perez Pena, alias “el Montanero;” Ivan Dario Suarez Munoz, alias “Ivan el Barbado;” Jesus David Hernandez Grisales, alias “Chaparro;” Jhon Fredy Yepes Hoyos, alias “Clemente;” Jorge de Jesus Vallejo Alarcon, alias “Vallejo;” Jose Leonardo Munoz Martinez, alias “Douglas;” and Juan Camilo Rendon Castro, alias “Saya”.
The list of criminals benefiting from the Petro government’s decision is completed by Juan Carlos Mesa Vallejo, alias “Tom;” Juan Fernando Alvarez, alias “Juan 23;” Mauricio de Jesus Morales Munera, alias “el Abogado;” Oscar Fernando Salazar Gutierrez, alias “el Compa;” Paulo Andres Torres Florez, alias “Pocho;” Rodrigo Henao Acevedo, alias “Perica;” Sebastian Murillo Echeverri, alias “Lindolfo;” and Walter Alonso Roman Jimenez, alias “el Tigre.”
Angry reaction from the mayor of Medellin
Immediately, Federico Gutierrez, mayor of Medellin, a city that for decades has been hit by the criminal acts of these individuals, rejected the measure of Colombia’s Petro getting authorities to suspend arrest warrants for criminals: “First, it was the ‘Tarimazo’ and then this. Once again, Petro and his government, allied with the worst criminals, deliver for their true friends. He asks the Attorney General’s Office to lift arrest warrants against 23 leaders of the criminal structures of Medellin,” Gutierrez wrote on the social network X, for whom the suspension of the arrest warrants against the criminals “is an insult to the victims and to Medellin.”
“There is no so-called Total Peace [the flagship program of Petro’s government that still does not show concrete results], what exists is a total surrender of Colombia to the worst criminals,” the mayor continued in his message. “What Petro intends with this is that they can leave prison, with the false excuse of ‘Peace’ to campaign [for the presidential elections] in the neighborhoods. Let’s guess in favor of whom!” in reference to the pro-government candidate Ivan Cepeda.
For Gutierrez, the criminal structures through their leaders “will interfere in the presidential elections. All this while they continue dedicated to homicide, extortion, the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, to poisoning our children and youth with drugs, and many other crimes. I will not remain silent in the face of such absurdity. We will continue fighting for our people. I only hope that the horrible night will soon cease.”
The Attorney General’s Office had previously explained that the suspensions of arrest warrants constitute a “temporary, limited and conditioned measure exclusively for the holding of ‘negotiations’ with organized armed groups outside the law with which political dialogues are being carried out in which peace agreements are agreed — or ‘approaches and conversations’ with organized armed groups or organized armed structures of high impact crime, to achieve their submission to justice and dismantle.”
Likewise, it described the presence of these spokespersons as “fundamental,” since it has allowed the construction of commitments that have enabled this Space for Conversation to generate actions to de-escalate urban violence, facilitate institutional intervention, and verify the intention to transition to the rule of law and to develop a sustainable process.” The suspensions of arrest warrants will have an initial duration of six months, a period during which the implementation of the commitments reached in the negotiation space must begin.