The president of Colombia, Gustabo Petro, signed a doc on Monday confirming the appointment of the previous head of the United Self-Protection Forces of Colombia (AUC), Salvatore Mancuso, as peace supervisor.
Petro had already introduced on July 23 its intention to hold out this appointment after Mancuso himself agreed to work along with the authorities to seek for victims of pressured disappearance on the border with Venezuela.
“To designate Mr. Salvatore Mancuso Gomez as peace supervisor in order that, in accordance with the authorized system for the safety of Human Rights and the validity of Worldwide Humanitarian Legislation, he contributes along with his data and expertise to the design of processes of collective disarmament of unlawful teams that act in all through nationwide territory, prioritizing the areas the place he carried out his felony exercise”, reads Petro’s assertion collected by the W Radio station.
“The nationwide Authorities will request the competent authorities to droop the judicial measures in power in opposition to Mr. Salvatore Mancuso Gomez, as supplied in Decree 1175 of 2016, with out prejudice to the continuation of his look earlier than the Chambers of Justice and Peace and earlier than different judicial cases,” the letter continues.
As well as, the doc states that the previous paramilitary chief should decide to “personally attend the judicial proceedings” and “present a report on the actions carried out as peace supervisor” and that, in case of non-compliance, his appointment will probably be revoked, so the felony instances in opposition to him will probably be reactivated.
In actual fact, the Colombian Ministries of Justice and International Affairs introduced on the finish of July the activation of all of the “vital diplomatic mechanisms” to course of the extradition of Mancuso, who has been in a migrant retention middle in Atlanta for 2 years. (United States) awaiting his extradition to Colombia, the place just a few months in the past he was granted 4 years of probation, though he has pending points with the Justice for his previous as head of the AUC.
Then again, the Excessive Commissioner for Peace of Colombia has already acknowledged that the appointment to this place “on no account exempts them from felony legal responsibility, investigations or sanctions” and that former members of the AUC should proceed to testify in courtroom when “they’re require”.
Mancuso, often known as ‘Triple Cero’ throughout his armed previous, has acknowledged being concerned in at the very least 300 murders, amongst that are these of the El Aro bloodbath, which led to a 40-year jail sentence that he by no means served for becoming a member of to the Justice and Peace Legislation mechanism, promoted by former President Alvaro Uribe to demobilize paramilitaries.
In flip, it has two judicial processes open in Colombia for its accountability in additional than 600 homicides, the pressured displacement of virtually 1,000 individuals and greater than thirty pressured disappearances.
