Authorities investigate suspected death of ACSN leader Bendito Menor after days without communications

For several days, Bendito Menor has vanished from the communications intercepts and surveillance operations that tracked him across Colombia’s Caribbean region. That silence has fueled reports that the ACSN leader may have been killed by members of his own criminal organization.

The claim began gaining strength on Thursday, Sept. 3, after intelligence information indicated that Pérez Toncel had possibly been murdered. Authorities are still checking the hypothesis, and no government agency has officially confirmed his death.

According to information obtained by EL TIEMPO, the suspected death could be linked to a military operation carried out days earlier by U.S. forces. Intelligence agencies are also verifying whether Rosa Angélica Tarazona, known as Bebecita and identified as Bendito Menor’s partner, was killed.

His disappearance from monitored communications is not the only unusual sign. Security circles have also noted that public activity associated with Bendito Menor has stopped. He had become an unusual figure in the criminal world of Colombia’s Caribbean coast because of his constant presence on social media, where videos, photographs and messages showed him armed, threatening rivals and commenting on security-force operations.

That visibility made him one of the most recognizable faces of the ACSN and, according to the report, a major target for authorities. An intensive search operation, with international support, had been tracking his movements in Magdalena, La Guajira and Cesar. Investigators deployed personnel in the area to search for the bodies, but no remains have been located and neither judicial nor military authorities have issued a confirmation.