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image by Eugene Ipavec, 16 September 2009
Unit Flag
See also:
image by Eugene Ipavec, 25 September 2009
Unit Flag - variant
image by Eugene Ipavec, 11 August 2009
Commander Pennant
The GAULA (Grupo de Acción Unificada por la Libertad Personal,
Unified Action Group for Personal Liberty) are units set up
against kidnapping and extorsion. The GAULA were formerly known
as UNASE (Unidad Anti Extorsión y Secuestro, Anti Extorsion and
Kidnapping Unit) units.
The GAULA units were created by Law 282 of June 6, 1996
effectively replacing the UNASE units. There are GAULA units in
the Police acting autonomously, that is, being independent in all
stages of fighting urban crime (intelligence, logistics, combat,
etc.). However the Military GAULA units (Army, Navy and Air
Force) have to act with an ad hoc attorney, usually a member of
the DAS or the Fiscalía, because the Military Forces
don't have judicial capacity to legalize captures and other
proceedings, so they always have to act with an embedded judicial
police. These units depend in administrative terms from the
Ministry of Defense ) but operationally speaking work inside the
Army and Navy Brigades where they are fisically located according
to the organizational chart
here.
The Police GAULA units are under the DIASE (Dirección
Antisecuestro y Extorsión, Antiextorsion and Anti-kidnapping
Directorate). Official website at
oasportal.policia.gov.co.
The Army GAULA units are under the DIASE (Dirección Antisecuestro
y Extorsión, Antiextorsion and Anti-kidnapping Directorate).
Official website at www.ejercito.mil.co.
There are a total of 34 GAULA units, 15 Urban GAULA units under
the Police command and 19 Rural GAULA units 17 under the Army and
2 under the Navy. Sources:
www.fondelibertad.gov.co,
www.specialoperations.com
and Wikipedia.
The Pennant of the Commander of the Army GAULA units is seen
here
(Picture taken on July 20, 2008). It is a black square, with a
yellow bordering featuring the GAULA Coat of Arms in the middle.
The GAULA Coat of Arms can be found
here.
The motto reads in Latin: DE OPPRESSO LIBER (Freedom to the
oppressed, the actual same motto of the U.S. Army Special
Forces).
E.R., 10 August 2009
On this
www.mindefensa.gov.co
by the Ministry of Defense one can see on the right side the flag
of GAULA (Grupos de Acción Unificada por la Libertad).
GAULA is an acronym for Unificada Grupos de Acción por la
Libertad Personal, ie Unified Action Groups for Personal Liberty,
specialising in solving hostage-taking. These are elite units
established in 1996 exclusively dedicated to the combating of
kidnapping and extortion. They are composed of highly qualified
personnel who conduct hostage rescues and dismantling of criminal
gangs at the root of crimes which compromise the personal freedom
of Colombians. There is an inter-institutional element in GAULA
guaranteeing self-checking procedures, trained by staff of the Administrative Security Department, the
Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Criminal Investigation Bureau and
military forces. Currently, the country has 16 GAULA of the
Colombian National Army and 2 of the Navy.
Sources:
Wikipedia, www.ejercito.mil.co,
www.cgfm.mil.co.
The GAULA groups are funded directly by the government and the
entity that administrates its funds is FONDELIBERTAD, Fondo
Nacional para la Defensa de la Libertad Personal (National Fund
for the Defense of Personal Freedom). FONDELIBERTAD depends
directly on the Ministry of Defense. FONDELIBERTAD was created by
Decree No.
1723 of October 6, 1995 and the GAULA were created by
Law
282 of 1996. For the full legal background and evolution see
www.antisecuestro.gov.co.
For the full list of GAULA units (military and Police combined)
see here.
Prior to the existence of the GAULA, there were the UNASE (nidad
Antisecuestro y Extorsi?n, Anti-Kidnapping and Extortion Unit).
UNASE units were created in response to a record number of
kidnappings in Bogota in 1991. Not a counterterrorist force in
the true sense, the specialty of UNASE is hostage rescue.
Nonetheless, as guerrilla groups such as FARC and ELN are
frequently the perpetrators of kidnappings-for-ransom, UNASE
teams often find themselves involved in firefights with these
terrorists. Like many other hostage rescue/CT teams, UNASE
volunteers come from the ranks of the police force, not the
military.
Each unit is made up of 35 men, five officers and 15 NCOs and 15
special agents. UNASE worked with the British SAS to effect the
rescue of Staff Sergeant Timothy Cowley in 1995. has effected
dozens of successful rescues. Some members of UNASE were trained
in Madrid under the Spanish Civil Guard. These units are now
based in most major Colombian cities including Cali, Bogota,
Barranquilla and Bucaramangara.
Source:
www.specialoperations.com.
The flag of the military GAULA units is a camouflage horizontal
flag with the logo in the middle.br>
E.R., 16 September 2009
TThe text in the bottom of the shield should likely be
"Grupos de Acción Unificada por la Libertad" in white
caps, not "De Opresso Liber" as in the small graphic
images on the web.
Eugene Ipavec, 16 September 2009
There is actually a variant of the GAULA flag. It is a black
background with the logo on the middle. There one can see that
there's the logo of the GAULA and on the circular border: Grupos
de Acci?n Unificada por la Libertad Personal. This is based on
photos taken on August 8, 2009 during a Military Parade during
the Feria de las Flores (Flowers Fair), the annual festivities in
the city of Medellin, Colombia.
E.R., 25 September 2009
II have never seen two identical Gaula flags, and I had visited
at least a dozen of their offices or facilities around the
country. Mostly because the seals differ from flag to flag.
Another variant is the seal on a red background, as red is the
official colour of the Ejercito Nacional (National Army).However,
most of the time the black background with a seal of different
dimensions can be seen indoors within military GAULA's.
Nicolas Velásquez, 25 September 2009
