Former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso, who was commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), arrived this Tuesday, February 27, in Bogotá from the United States, from where he was deported after serving a sentence for drug trafficking in 2020, and assured that will abide by “the restrictive conditions” imposed by the Justice of his country.
First modification: 02/28/2024 – 06:28
4 min
Former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso, who was commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), arrived this Tuesday, February 27, in Bogotá from the United States, from where he was deported after serving a sentence for drug trafficking, and assured that he will comply ” the restrictive conditions” imposed by the Justice of their country.
Mancuso, 59, arrived on a charter flight for deportees that landed at the Military Transport Air Command (Catam) in the Colombian capital and will now have to appear in court for dozens of crimes committed during the armed conflict.
In the first images released of his deportation, Mancuso appears wearing a bulletproof vest from Migración Colombia and surrounded by agents with bulletproof shields. Among the officials who received him was the director of that institution, Carlos Fernando García.
The former paramilitary chief, who was appointed ‘peace manager’ by the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, to mediate with the Clan del Golfo, the heir group of the AUC with which the Government tried to begin dialogues that were currently frustrated, will be handed over to the National Police.
Mancuso, who is expected to be held in the La Picota prison in Bogotá, will be at the disposal of the judge for the execution of sentences of Justice and Peace of the Colombian capital and the magistrate of Control of Guarantees of Barranquilla, who are the competent authorities to take decisions about their freedom, according to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).
Read also: What criticism is there regarding the appointment of Salvatore Mancuso as peace manager in Colombia?
Mancuso’s criminal life
Mancuso laid down his arms in 2006, like the majority of the members of the AUC, a group responsible for most of the crimes committed during the armed conflict, according to the Truth Commission.
His demobilization was carried out after a negotiation with the Government of the then president, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), who finally extradited him in 2008 to the United States along with 13 other paramilitary leaders because they were still dedicated to drug trafficking.
People look at a screen with the image of Salvatore Mancuso, former commander of the right-wing paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), during a ceremony at a crematorium chamber where paramilitary groups disappeared their victims during the armed conflict, in the area of Juan Frío in the municipality of Villa del Rosario, Colombia, on May 9, 2023. © AFP – Shneyder Mendoza
In that country, Mancuso was sentenced in 2015 to 15 years and 10 months in prison for drug trafficking.
However, in March 2020, the American judge who sentenced him declared the sentence served by validating as part of his sentence the two years he was imprisoned in Colombia, as well as those he spent in prison in the United States awaiting trial.
As part of the AUC’s agreement with the Government, the paramilitaries took advantage of the Justice and Peace Law, which contemplated maximum sentences of eight years in prison in exchange for collaboration to solve crimes.
Mancuso and the truth
Mancuso has participated in several JEP hearings, in which he has provided information on how the AUC They played the role of ‘hinge’ between the military and paramilitary apparatus in various “patterns of macrocriminality” such as displacements or executions.
For this reason, the Colombian Government assured that it will guarantee his safety, since his life may be in danger, according to the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, due to the “contributions” he has offered so that “the truth” is known, especially in the JEP.
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In that sense, Mancuso assured in a letter released this Tuesday that he will abide and respect “the restrictive conditions” imposed by the Justice of his country.
“Returning, despite the restrictive conditions imposed on me by the Colombian Justice, to which I abide and respect, and the difficult and complex security circumstances that surround my presence in Colombia, is a way of rebirth that fills me with life” , he explained in the letter.
Mancuso assured that he wants to make himself “at the disposal” of the JEP and Justice and Peace, the law that demobilized the AUC, “with full confidence that they are guarantors of fundamental rights.”
He also justified his return to “honor” the promise he made to Petro to be “peace manager and contribute with precise tasks in order to materialize that concept in which I fervently believe, total peace.”
For this reason, he asked to install the technical table “for the definitive closure of the negotiations” with the paramilitaries and was available to the victims “to prevent Colombia from being an eternal factory of victims and collective pain.”
With EFE