Bogotá (EFE).- The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced this Sunday that he has decided to name the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries Salvatore Mancuso “peace manager” to finish the peace process that he considers was not concluded with the paramilitaries.
“The peace process between the Uribe government and the paramilitaries has not yet finished, the whole truth is not yet known, the haciendas delivered in part have been lost in the hands of the State, recycled to new groups that inherited the paramilitaries, many victims’ bodies have not yet been found (sic),” Petro announced on his Twitter account.
For this reason, “in order to finish the process and achieve complete peace, I have decided to name Salvatore Mancuso as peace manager,” he alleged.
The controversial process with the paramilitaries
The AUC, the group that committed the most homicides during the armed conflict according to the Truth Commission, demobilized in 2006 after a negotiation process with the Uribe government.
As part of the agreement, the former paramilitaries took advantage of the Justice and Peace Law, which set sentences of a maximum of eight years in prison in exchange for collaboration to clarify crimes, but some of the leaders lost those benefits and many, including Mancuso, ended up extradited to the United States for drug-related sentences.
There were many other paramilitaries who took up arms again, forming groups like the Clan del Golfo.
The turn with the justice of the peace in Colombia
Mancuso testified in May before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in a hearing with which he tries to receive him before this special justice that contemplates non-custodial sentences in exchange for a contribution of truth.
There, during the four days of hearings, he acknowledged facts that were known, such as the links between paramilitaries, politicians, and companies, crimes that were committed, and also gave information that was not known, such as the existence of disappeared persons in Venezuela, where they took the bodies of those murdered so that they would not be found.
Petro acknowledged his work to provide information on the atrocious acts committed by the AUC and now works so that the former paramilitary chief, who is in an Atlanta jail awaiting his repatriation to Colombia, can intercede to improve a peace process that the president considers was not carried out correctly.
His collaboration has already been requested to go to the area of Venezuela where the AUC supposedly disappeared people, but the president believes that he could also help with the negotiation process with the Clan del Golfo, despite the fact that this new paramilitary group denies that Mancuso has any command power.