Commentary
The United States recently designated the Clan del Golfo as a terrorist organization. The group, also known as the Gulf Clan, is Colombia’s most powerful guerrilla group and its largest cocaine trafficker. It presents itself as a legitimate political actor but is actually a criminal cartel of 3,500 with its own uniformed army of 6,000 attached militants.The clan is active in approximately one-third of the 1,103 Colombian municipalities, where it allegedly recruits child soldiers; engages in illegal gold mining, racketeering, and embezzlement; and extorts cash from the country’s largest companies. But the Gulf Clan’s primary source of funding is the cocaine business, which kills thousands annually in the United States.
