In mid-October, the Colombian government inaugurated the creation of the Northwest Joint Command No. 5 (CCON5), tasked with guaranteeing the security, defense, and well-being of communities in the departments of Antioquia, Córdoba, Sucre, Bolívar, Boyacá, and Chocó. The new military unit composed of more than 30,000 men and women from the Army, Navy, and Colombian Aerospace Force, is responsible for deploying offensive operations in a 151,000 square-kilometer-area, home to 195 municipalities, to ensure the security of nearly 10 million inhabitants.
“What is intended with the activation of this Joint Command is: First, that there is a command unit with one lead. Second, to have the distinctive capabilities of each of the forces that make up the Military Forces and Colombia, to be able to carry out joint operations, so that there is that operational synergy that we seek through the contribution of each of the forces for the fulfillment of a given mission,” Major General Helder Fernán Giraldo, general commander of the Colombian Military Forces, told local news site Notiacandí.
Among the main challenges for the new command under Brigadier General Hernando Garzón Rey are combating illegal mining, mainly in Bajo Cauca, Antioquia, and Chocó; narcotrafficking networks and routes; irregular migration; extortion; and the presence of criminal groups such as the Clan del Golfo, the National Liberation Army, dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and common crime, the Army said in a statement.
“Here we have different organized armed groups [GAOs] that continue to maintain that threat in a persistent manner against the civilian population,” Maj. Gen. Giraldo said. “That is where this CCON5 comes in to be able to combat and subdue these threats […] that keep up armed actions, keep up extortion, and kidnapping; then we are going to work in a very coordinated manner with the National Police and with other authorities as needed; with the Attorney General’s Office, which is a great ally to develop the different operations that we carry out against these GAOs.”
The command will fight the means that illegal armed groups, particularly the Clan del Golfo, use to enrich themselves, including narcotrafficking, illegal mining, extortion, kidnapping, and human trafficking, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez Gómez said at the inauguration of the CCON5. “We hope that all the members of Joint Command No. 5, in their relationship with the community, can give the population the security, the conviction that the Military Forces are there for their protection.”
The area of responsibility of this new command has a geostrategic location in territories that have cultural diversity and a wide participation in the national economy. However, the region has thick jungles on its borders and exits to the sea that make it difficult for the authorities to control.
“In addition to the activation of Joint Command No. 5, the goal is to increase the integral presence of the ‘Government of Change’ in the region,” Minister Velásquez said on the Ministry of Defense X account. “These actions are not limited to the military, but also to the development of social programs so that in this territory people can live with dignity.”