International Courant
Officers hope Salvatore Mancuso will cooperate by revealing details about tons of of murders and enforced disappearances.
Former Colombian paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso has been repatriated after serving a jail sentence for drug trafficking in the US.
Salvatore Mancuso arrived at El Dorado Airport in Bogota on Tuesday. After seeing a number of requests to journey to Italy, the place he additionally has citizenship, rejected, he was rapidly taken into police custody, with authorities hoping he would make clear tons of of crimes that came about through the civil unrest within the Nineties and early 2000s.
Mancuso, now 59, who arrived on a constitution flight carrying dozens of Colombians who had been deported after illegally coming into the U.S., was beforehand a frontrunner of the United Self-Protection Forces of Colombia. The paramilitary group, based by ranchers, fought left-wing rebels throughout one of the crucial violent durations of Colombia’s decades-long armed battle.
Human rights teams and authorities officers hope he’ll cooperate with the justice system and supply data on tons of of crimes.
Mancuso has admitted his duty for numerous massacres. He has been in jail within the US since 2008 for drug trafficking and has indicated that he’s now able to tackle the position of ‘peace advocate’.
“I proceed with my obligations to the victims, however on the identical time I put myself on the service of a peace agenda that may stop Colombia from turning into a perpetual manufacturing unit of victims and collective ache,” Mancuso mentioned in a speech. assertion distributed to the media upon his arrival.
He’ll stay in jail in Colombia, the place courts have discovered him answerable for greater than 1,500 murders and disappearances. He’ll attempt to get a diminished sentence and potential launch from jail from the transitional justice system created by Colombia’s 2016 peace deal.
Victims of the nation’s battle hope Mancuso will make clear tons of of killings and enforced disappearances by paramilitary fighters, together with extrajudicial killings the place victims had been buried in mass graves.
In a number of hearings earlier than Colombian judges, together with some by teleconference whereas in U.S. custody, the previous paramilitary chief has spoken about his dealings with politicians and the potential involvement of senior officers in warfare crimes.
However his extradition to the US in 2008 had delayed the investigation.
“Mancuso’s return to the nation ought to contribute to constructing peace, justice, reality and stopping the recurrence of warfare.” mentioned Rodrigo Londono, also referred to as Timochenko, a former chief of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgent motion. He’s the present chairman of the FARC political celebration Comunes.
“I prolong my hand to Mancuso to reconcile the nation and expose all obligations of the armed battle,” he wrote on social media. “Peace will prevail!”
Colombia has suffered almost six a long time of civil warfare between left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and the nation’s army. The battle killed greater than 450,000 folks and displaced tens of millions.
FARC, the most important insurgent group, signed a peace settlement with the federal government in 2016 and laid down its arms.
President Gustavo Petro, who took workplace in August 2022, has made the pursuit of “whole peace” within the South American nation a key a part of his administration. He signed a historic ceasefire with the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN), which was prolonged in early February.
Former paramilitary chief returned to Colombia after seize in US | FARC information
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