Colombia’s Supreme Court clears guerrilla leader for extradition to US

Colombia’s Supreme Court cleared the commander of a dissident faction of guerrilla group ELN extradition to the United States weeks after they surrendered hundreds of weapons and explosives.

Gabriel Yepes, a.k.a. “HH,” is the commander of the ELN dissident group Comuneros del Sur and is wanted by a court in Texas on drug trafficking charges.

According the indictment, HH and his organization maintain alliances with Mexican cartels to ship drugs to North and Central America.

Arrest warrants against the commander of the Comuneros del Sur have been lifted to facilitate the group’s demobilization and disarmament.

Comuneros del Sur

Established in 1992, the Comuneros del Sur was the ELN’s regional guerrilla unit in Nariño, where they maintained control over as many as 10 municipalities.

In May of 2024, Comuneros del Sur separated from the larger ELN group after their central command announced the resumption of  kidnapping for ransom.

In August of last year, the Colombian government recognized them as an independent group, and peace talks officially began in September.

Representatives of the group and the government signed peace agreements and finalized the delivery of weapons and explosives in the Nariño province earlier this month.

The armed group handed over 585 explosives and arms, including mines, mortars, and grenades.

All surrendered material was destroyed by the National Army’s Explosive Devices Management Group.

Is Total Peace possible?

The American extradition requests adds pressure to the government’s troubled Total Peace policy, which seeks to negotiate the surrender of multiple illegal armed groups.

The court decision comes weeks after prosecutors arrested guerrilla leader Geovany Andres Rojas of the “Comandos de la Frontera” while he was taking part in peace talks.

Comuneros del Sur called this arrest a “mortal blow” to talks with Rojas’ group and are now at risk of having their own leader arrested over a pending extradition request.

The peace process with the Comuneros del Sur has become a source of careful optimism amid a series of failures to secure the demobilization and disarmament of illegal armed groups.

Particularly, the process in Nariño provided an opportunity to demonstrate the viability of regional transformation and localized solutions to secure a lasting peace.

“We don’t have a national conflict but have regional conflicts in the same geographical areas as they have been for many decades” said Petro to the United Nations Security Count in July last year.

Unless the American extradition request creates issues, the guerrillas from Nariño hope to begin their transition back into civilian life before 2026.