Colombia’s Clan del Golfo commander dies in river accident

BOGOTA, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The second-in-command of Colombia’s Clan del Golfo crime gang – the country’s largest illegal armed group – Jose Gonzalo Sanchez died when the boat he was traveling in to promote the gang’s peace process with the government capsized in a river in the northwest of the country, according to reports from the illegal armed group and the government.

The boat carrying Sanchez, more commonly known as ‘Gonzalito’ capsized on Friday on the Esmeralda River, in the department of Cordoba, the illegal armed group said in a statement on Sunday.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace said it hopes that Sanchez’s death would not delay the government’s peace process with the illegal armed group. The Clan del Golfo crime gang was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in December.

Talks between the group and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro are part of the administration’s embattled plan to bring peace to the country after six decades of armed conflict. 

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)