Colombia Plans Floating Prisons to Isolate Top Cartel Leaders

Colombia is embarking on a significant overhaul of its prison system, with President Abelardo De La Espriella announcing ambitious plans to construct maximum-security mega-prisons and repurpose naval ships into floating detention centers. This dual approach is designed to effectively isolate the nation's most dangerous criminal leaders and dismantle the operational capacity of organized crime groups that continue to direct activities from behind bars.

"My commitment to building maximum-security mega-prisons to house the country's most dangerous terrorists remains unchanged," stated De La Espriella during a ceremony recognizing the new military leadership. He indicated that these high-security facilities would be developed in collaboration with the private sector. The initiative to create floating prisons, a joint project involving the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), aims to sever the communication and control channels used by cartel leaders.

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My commitment to building maximum-security mega-prisons to house the country's most dangerous terrorists remains unchanged.

This strategy bears resemblance to proposals made by Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who suggested stationing prison ships off the country's Pacific coast. Colombia itself has experience with such unconventional detention methods. In 2007, under former President Alvaro Uribe, prominent cartel leaders, including Carlos Mario Jimenez, known as 'Macaco,' and Diego Fernando Montoya, or 'Don Diego,' were temporarily held on naval vessels to ensure their complete isolation from the outside world.

President De La Espriella recently highlighted a successful operation where 20 imprisoned gang members were transferred from Barranquilla to Bogota under high security. "I will hunt them all down. I am ending their privileges, the control of crime they exercise from within prisons, and the criminal operations used to extort, threaten, and intimidate workers," the president declared. The government's comprehensive plan seeks to address the persistent problem of prisons serving as operational hubs for criminal organizations.

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I will hunt them all down. I am ending their privileges, the control of crime they exercise from within prisons, and the criminal operations used to extort, threaten, and intimidate workers.