Gunfire, banners and popular music accompany the bodies of ‘Bendito Menor’ and three others into Riohacha

Riohacha woke under a heavy security presence after gunfire greeted the funeral procession carrying Naín Andrés Pérez Toncel, alias Bendito Menor, and three companions along the Troncal del Caribe. Motorcycles, banners and popular music accompanied the line of funeral cars as it entered the capital of La Guajira.

Videos circulated on social media showing a row of men firing shots into the air as the procession passed. The bodies had been handed over to relatives on Saturday afternoon at the Northern Regional office of Colombia’s Legal Medicine Institute in Barranquilla. They left the city that night and reached Riohacha on Sunday morning.

The bodies were those of Pérez Toncel, Rosa Angélica Tarazona, known as La Bebecita and identified as his partner, and two men described as members of his security detail. They were identified by the aliases El Tío and Casiloco. The family kept the transfer from Legal Medicine to a funeral home in Barranquilla under tight secrecy. Relatives and associates waited outside the institute amid crying and grieving.

Tension had already grown in Riohacha before the procession arrived. Authorities held a security council meeting on Saturday night, while rumors spread in the 15 de Mayo neighborhood that shopkeepers would have to close their businesses. Police said the night remained calm and reported no disturbances.

One of Pérez Toncel’s alleged bodyguards, who was killed in the operation, was scheduled to be buried at 4 p.m. Sunday at Riohacha’s Central Cemetery. A police officer who died elsewhere in the country was due to be buried at the same time, a coincidence that added to the strain surrounding a day marked by secrecy and a strong security deployment.