Security update
October 16: drones hit a police station in Teruel, and the ESMAD is back
Here's what happened since the last update, and what each one means.
1A drone attack on the police station in Teruel, Huila
At 1:30 PM on Friday, October 16, attackers dropped explosives from drones on the police station in Teruel, a town in Huila about 40 km from Neiva. 1 police officer was wounded. The security forces say the attackers got away on a motorcycle. No group has been named. It's the second drone attack on the Teruel station in less than 2 months.
What it meansA drone and a motorcycle are enough to hit a police station and get away. Julio César Triana, a congressman from Huila, says Teruel is one of the towns that has suffered most from drone attacks in the department.
2Cali's mayor links the grenade suspect to Mordisco's dissidents
Cali's mayor, Alejandro Eder, says the 23-year-old man captured after the grenade attack on police on October 15 is "the terrorist who threw this grenade, who apparently has ties to the Jaime Martínez" front, part of Iván Mordisco's FARC dissidents. Infobae reports the authorities are still working to establish whether he took part in the attack and whether others were involved. 5 officers were hurt by shrapnel. Eder said: "We'll keep going without giving up a single centimeter to the violent."
What it meansIf the link is confirmed, Mordisco's dissidents have carried their attacks on police into the city of Cali itself.
3"Julito" captured in Bucaramanga
On October 16, the president announced that police hit the hit squad of a gang called Los del Sur in Bucaramanga: 5 captured and 1 minor taken into custody, with 4 firearms, about 4,000 doses of coca base, 4 kilos of marijuana, cash and phones seized. Among the captured is alias "Julito". The president says he's accused of coordinating targeted killings and local drug dealing, and is linked to about 20 violent acts, including the Villa Esperanza massacre, which killed 4 people, and the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Valeria Espitia. Infobae reports she was 17. Infobae also reports Julito turned 18 on May 29, 2026, and escaped from a youth detention center in Bogotá on April 27, 2026, during a medical transfer. The links to these crimes are preliminary.
What it meansThe gang's hit squad was made up of young people: Julito turned 18 this year, and a minor was taken in the same raid. The youth detention system had him in custody and lost him.
4The ESMAD is back
Resolution 03226 of October 13, 2026, signed by the Police director, Maj. Gen. Jesús Alejandro Barrera Peña, replaces the riot unit called the Undmo with the National Anti-Riot Unit (Unidad Nacional Antidisturbios, Unadi). The riot squads get their old name back: the Mobile Anti-Riot Squadrons (Escuadrones Móviles Antidisturbios, ESMAD). There will be 30 squadrons in 8 regional units, among them 5 in Bogotá, 3 in Medellín, 2 each in Cali and Cúcuta, and 5 for Barranquilla, Cartagena, Valledupar, Riohacha and Santa Marta. The change has a 90-day transition. The unit steps in when the police's other capacities "prove insufficient".
What it meansThe Petro government's renaming of the riot police is undone. The rule for using the unit is wider than protests: it can be sent in whenever the regular police can't handle a situation.
5Plan Meteoro comes back to guard the highways
El Tiempo reports, citing sources it didn't name, that the government is preparing more than 98,000 million pesos to bring back Plan Meteoro, a road security plan first started in 2002 under President Álvaro Uribe against kidnappings on the highways. The Defense and Transport ministries will run it together. It covers the whole country but is focused on 3 areas: Cauca (especially the Pan-American Highway), Catatumbo and southern Cesar. 69 battalions take part. After the attack on the El Bordo toll, 2 more platoons were sent south of Popayán.
What it means for usMore soldiers and armored vehicles on the worst stretches of road. No start date has been given.
6Argentina will extradite a man in the Miguel Uribe Turbay case
On Thursday, October 15, it was announced that a federal judge in Buenos Aires, Julián Ercolini, granted the extradition of Brayan Ferney Cruz Castillo, 30, a Colombian captured there in April 2026. Colombian prosecutors call him a "lookout, watcher and transporter" for the criminal network behind the attack on Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was shot in a Bogotá park on June 7, 2025, and died on August 11, 2025. Infobae reports chats in which he tracked vehicles near the Javeriana university. He's charged with aggravated conspiracy, terrorism and weapons and explosives crimes. He stays in custody until the handover paperwork is done.
What it meansColombia is reaching people in the Uribe Turbay network who left the country. He'll face the charges in Colombia.
On social media
His 2 security posts since the last update were both about arrests. At 12:52 PM, on Barranquilla, he wrote "The shenanigans are over!" and gave new totals for Operation Shield 360 (Operación Blindaje 360): 72 captured, 50 raids and 17 firearms seized. By about 6:30 PM it had 89,300 views, 6,078 likes and 252 replies. His 2:53 PM post on the capture of "Julito" had 108,900 views, 3,978 likes and 134 replies. The replies we loaded were mostly supportive, with few likes. A supporter mocking the men captured in Barranquilla: "Weren't they supposed to be so brave???" (36 likes) Another: "Mr. President, take care of yourself, but this is what we needed. But President, how long with the killers called minors? A minor should only go up to age 10." Critics asked about their own cities: "Mr. President, and when are the operations in Bogotá? The thieves on motorcycles, the robberies of shops, the theft of cell phones have us overwhelmed. Barranquilla isn't the only one with crime." Another said fighting crime is the job of the military and police: "Don't you think it's already too much of a show?" The top reply on the Bucaramanga post (12 likes) said Petro had captured him too and the judges let him go. New themes: people in Bogotá, Cauca and the Coffee Region (Eje Cafetero) asking for the same operations in their areas, the cost of living, and minors who kill. As of about 6:30 PM, he hadn't posted about the Teruel attack, the ESMAD or the Argentina extradition. This comes from the top replies on X, not a poll.
I support most of this. But it doesn't go far enough. These groups use any space they're given to reset and grow. They need to be crushed, not contained.