This newspaper had access to a 3:04 minute video, recorded by one of the Inpec analysis rooms, which shows part of the routine of the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, in the La Picota prison in Bogotá , where he has been held since last February 27, after his return to Colombia.
The cell is 12 square meters, it has a bed, a bathroom and a shelf. To get to the place where he is being held there are five security rings. In the images you can see the former paramilitary leaving his cell to undergo a medical check-up in the hallway of one of the extraditable pavilions.
In a second clip, dated this Tuesday, March 19, Mancuso is seen sitting in a plastic chair, guarded by two dragoneers, answering a call through the telephones provided by Inpec so that inmates can communicate with authorized persons.
The video was leaked by official sources shortly before the former paramilitary leader gave his first interview to RTVC this Tuesday. Although his legal situation is not yet defined, his freedom is at stake and the way in which he will collaborate with the authorities for rapprochements, within the framework of the Total Peace policy, with groups such as the AGC (Clan del Golfo) and the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada.
The security measures adopted by Inpec for Mancuso’s confinement indicate: “He will remain alone, isolated and with permanent surveillance, monitored from an analysis room.” In that same room there are four active security cameras that point only to his cell.
The document indicates that the former paramilitary leader, who is being held after being extradited from the United States on February 27, is guarded by 64 Inpec officials divided into three shifts during the day: “Mancuso will be guarded by guard personnel polygraphed by the American Embassy in security of high security pavilions”.
This Monday, March 18, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) confirmed that it will define his legal situation and eventual freedom. That Court completely accepted his submission, which means that with the decision it would be in the hands of the transitional justice to define under what conditions he would fulfill his role as peace manager in the Petro Government, a position in which he was appointed since last year. .
Before his return to Colombia, Mancuso served a 16-year sentence in the United States for drug trafficking. He is the first former paramilitary chief who is accepted in the Peace Court to contribute, among other things, with the truth of the armed conflict that involves members of the Public Force in serious violations of human rights.
For more than a decade, he had to answer in Colombia for more than 4,701 crimes committed by paramilitaries that left thousands of victims in Cesar, Córdoba, Antioquia, Bolívar, La Guajira, Magdalena, Norte de Santander, Sucre, among others. Before the JEP accepted its submission, that jurisdiction led three hearings with the presence of the victims of paramilitarism in Córdoba.
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