Mancuso criticizes JEP’s ultimatum to make him appear for his crimes as paramilitary leader

Former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso has criticized the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) for describing as “last chance” the decision to make them appear soon to elucidate whether they can finally submit to the benefits of this special mechanism arising from the Havana agreements.

On September 1, the JEP accepted that both Mancuso and Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias ‘Jorge 40’, appear in a new hearing in which they must demonstrate the alleged links they claimed they maintained with agents of the security forces and the Army in different stages of the armed conflict, which will allow them to enter as civilian third parties.

However, Mancuso has criticized in a letter sent to the president of the JEP, Judge Eduardo Cifuentes, that this ‘last chance’ does not recognize the 16 years he has been linked to the Justice and Peace Law, the mechanism of former President Alvaro Uribe’s government to facilitate the demobilization of paramilitaries.

“To say that this is the last opportunity for us to provide the truth is to state that the work done by Justice and Peace and the appearance of the postulates along with the participation of the victims have not been worth it,” Mancuso has argued, RCN reports.

‘Triple Zero’, as he was known during his years leading the paramilitary self-defense groups, lamented that Cifuentes’ statement also ignores the other appearances, acknowledgements and requests for pardon that he has presented before other bodies, such as the Truth Commission.

Finally, he has stressed that his will is to appear before the JEP, but that he is in solitary confinement in a prison in the United States, where he is serving a sentence for drug trafficking crimes.

After several failed judicial attempts, Mancuso and ‘Jorge 40’, two of the most bloodthirsty living paramilitary leaders of the conflict, have again another chance before the JEP. The former is in a US prison and fears extradition, while the latter is serving a sentence in Colombia.

Mancuso has admitted having been involved in at least 300 murders, among which were the victims of the El Aro massacre, which resulted in a 40-year prison sentence that he never served for joining the Justice and Peace Law mechanism, promoted by former President Alvaro Uribe to demobilize paramilitaries.

In turn, he has two open judicial processes in Colombia for his responsibility in more than 600 homicides, the forced displacement of almost 1,000 people and more than thirty forced disappearances.

For his part, ‘Jorge 40’ has been in a Colombian prison since 2020, when he arrived from the United States after serving a twelve-year sentence for drug trafficking. He was recently sentenced to 40 years for a double murder in 1999.

Like Mancuso, he also joined Uribe’s demobilization policy, acknowledging his involvement in more than 1,400 crimes, including 300 massacres, for which he will now have to answer if he fails to grab hold of the JEP.