Madrid. The Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, assured this Tuesday that the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries, Salvatore Mancuso, recently appointed as peace manager, will respond to the victims.
“The rights of the victims are at the center, no mockery is allowed. That is why we have proposed Mancuso’s return,” Rueda told the media, according to what Radio Caracol published on his X social network account, formerly Twitter.
In addition, the High Commissioner explained that other former AUC chiefs could be appointed as peace managers, although their cases are still being studied, and those who have requested it will go through “a judicial review.”
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, signed a document on Monday confirming the appointment of Mancuso as peace manager, who had previously announced his willingness to work together with the authorities to search for victims of forced disappearance on the border with Venezuela.
The Colombian Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs announced at the end of July the activation of all the “necessary diplomatic mechanisms” to process the extradition of Mancuso, who has been in a migrant retention center for two years in Atlanta (United States). ) awaiting his extradition to Colombia, where a few months ago he was granted four years of probation, although he has pending accounts with the Justice for his past as head of the AUC.
For his part, the High Commissioner has already stated that the appointment to this position “in no way exempts them from criminal liability, investigations or sanctions” and that former members of the AUC must continue to testify in court when “required.”
Mancuso, known as ‘Triple Cero’ during his armed past, acknowledged being involved in at least 300 murders, among which are those of the El Aro massacre, which led to a 40-year prison sentence that he never served for joining the Justice and Peace Law mechanism, promoted by former President Álvaro Uribe to demobilize paramilitaries.
In turn, it has two judicial processes open in Colombia for its responsibility in more than 600 homicides, the forced displacement of almost a thousand people and more than thirty forced disappearances.
