The Spartans (Esparantos) are one of two gangs operating in Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, a port city on Colombia’s Pacific coast. In recent years, they have drawn attention for their violent conflict with the Shottas, the city’s other major criminal group. The Spartans are mainly involved in drug trafficking. 

History 

The Spartans trace their origins back to the late 1990s. The Calima Bloc (Bloque Calima), a paramilitary group belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC) arrived in Buenaventura hoping to expel the 30^th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), which had maintained a presence in the rural areas of the municipality since the late 1990s.

The paramilitaries maintained a predominantly urban presence and began recruiting young people from vulnerable neighborhoods, ramping up violence and extortion in the city.

After the AUC demobilized in 2006, some members of the Calima Bloc continued their criminal activities. Among these were the Bustamante family clan, which created the Empresa, a gang which would dominate the city’s criminal landscape for the next decade. The Bustamantes took control of drug trafficking routes through the city, grew extortion networks to finance the Empresa, and carried out kidnappings and disappearances.

The Bustamantes eventually abandoned the Empresa, creating a new group known as the Local, which was on the authorities’ radar by 2016. After several waves of arrests, Diego Bustamante, alias “Diego Optra,” took control of the Local in April 2019. However, his leadership proved controversial within the organization.

By December 2020, an internal rift in the Local led to the formation of two rival gangs vying for control of Buenaventura: the Spartans and the Shottas. As these factions clashed for dominance in the city’s neighborhoods, the phenomenon of invisible borders emerged — divisions between areas controlled by opposing gangs that severely restricted residents’ movement.

The ongoing gang violence and frequent shootouts resulted in informal curfews. Residents in neighborhoods with a strong gang presence rarely left their homes after sunset to avoid being caught in the crossfire, while schools were forced to adjust their schedules to ensure students can return home before the curfew begins.

In October 2022, the two gangs agreed to a truce after entering negotiations with the government as part of President Gustavo Petro’s Total Peace policy, which sought to negotiate demobilization agreements with the country’s main armed groups and criminal gangs. The pact led to 92 consecutive days without homicides in Buenaventura—a dramatic reduction in violence. The groups have since extended the agreement multiple times, and homicides declined by 16%, decreasing from 60 to 50 between June 2023 and June 2024.

The drop in violence, however, did not coincide with declining criminal rents. Drug trafficking is the backbone of the Spartans’ operations, serving as their primary source of income. Both the Spartans and Shottas control the security of drug shipments passing through Buenaventura’s ports and estuaries. The city’s wetlands and river-adjacent swamps form a network of waterways that locals use for transportation—and the gangs exploit to move drugs toward the high seas.

Their criminal activities have grown beyond drug trafficking. While extortion of small businesses has long been common in the port city, both the Spartans and the Shottas have moved beyond the simple schemes of their predecessors, devising more sophisticated methods to maximize profits. Since at least 2022, these groups have vertically integrated themselves into the entire food supply chain in urban Buenaventura, controlling everything from wholesale purchasing to price fixing.

The relative calm that existed in the city since the beginning of the truce between the gangs came to a halt in January 2025, with 17 murders in just the first month of the year.  In February 2025, the Spartans left the dialogue table after the government put out an arrest warrant on the group’s spokesperson in the negotiations. The gangs then declined to renew the truce, citing a lack of interest on the government’s part in meaningfully advancing negotiations. 

Leadership

Jorge Isaac Campaz Jiménez, alias “Mapaya,” is the top leader of the Spartans, according to local media and sources interviewed by InSight Crime.  

His exact whereabouts remain unknown, but several sources indicated that both he and Diego Fernando Bustamante, alias “Diego Optra,” the top leader of the Shottas, are living outside Buenaventura, directing their operations from afar.

Geography

Urban Buenaventura is split into two parts: the island and the mainland, referred to as the “continent.” The Espartanos control the island, which includes communes 1–5. This area is strategically advantageous due to its proximity to most of the city’s ports and higher-revenue businesses, including the downtown and commercial centers. While the Espartanos also have a presence in some mainland communes, the Shottas dominate there.

Both groups compete for control over strategic drug trafficking territories, including neighborhoods with warehouses (bodegas) where traffickers contaminate containers with cocaine and estuaries that serve as launch points for go-fast boats loaded with drugs. They charge “taxes” to independent drug trafficking networks that use routes within their territories and provide “protection services” to facilitate drug movement through urban Buenaventura.

Allies and Enemies

The Spartans’ primary rival is the Shottas, despite their shared origins. However, the criminal landscape in Buenaventura has grown more complex as other criminal actors have established a presence, influencing the balance of power between the two gangs.

Since 2023, the Spartans have maintained an alliance with the Chiquillos, a remnant faction of the Empresa, in their fight against the Shottas. The Chiquillos are led by Robert Daniel Quintana, alias “Robert.”

Larger criminal actors have also entered the fray. Since 2022, the Jaime Martínez Front of the Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central – EMC), a federation of ex-FARC dissident fronts, has expanded into the outskirts of urban Buenaventura, particularly Commune 12, a Shottas stronghold.

As a result, the Jaime Martínez Front has allied with the Spartans in their fight against the Shottas in these areas. In response, the Shottas have forged an alliance with the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), which operates in the northern rural areas of Buenaventura but can access the urban zone through Commune 12.

However, these alliances remain highly volatile, driven by shifting interests and short-term strategic gains. They can change—or dissolve—at any moment.

Prospects

The Spartans’ hopes for a comprehensive demobilization agreement under the Total Peace plan appear to be fading. A legal framework for these negotiations has yet to be established, as the group does not fall under the same legal jurisdiction as Colombian armed organizations with political motivations, such as the FARC dissidents or the ELN, both of which have engaged in formal peace talks with the government.

Nonetheless, while the truce between the Spartans and the Shottas has led to a significant reduction in homicides, it has also provided both groups with a strategic advantage. The ceasefire has eased the immediate threat posed by their rivals, allowing them to consolidate control over their respective territories and expand their criminal activities with fewer disruptions.

The rupture of the truce between the Spartans and the Shottas may destabilize Buenaventura as the groups once again seek to dominate the criminal landscape, ending a prolonged period of tense calm in the port city. 

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