Senator Javier Caceres was arrested in Bogota Tuesday over allegations that paramilitary group “Heroes de Montes de Maria” financed his election campaign, reports El Espectador.
Caceres, who was Senate president from July 2009 to July 2010, was arrested on the orders of Colombia’s Supreme Court for alleged links with former paramilitary boss Uber Enrique Banquez, alias “Juancho Dique.”
The demobilized paramilitary was one of the first participants in Colombia’s Justice and Peace program to be sentenced for crimes he committed while he was a leader of now-demobilized paramilitary organization the AUC.
Caceres gave an exclusive interview to Caracol Radio from the Bogota Prosecutor General’s Office were he is being held. In the interview Caceres denied allegations that he met with paramilitaries or “any illegal groups, anywhere in Colombia.”
It has been alleged that Caceres met with AUC boss Carlos Castaño in 2000 and traveled to Santa Fe de Ralito in the Cordoba department in 2004. The Ralito Pact an agreement between politicians, businessmen and far-right paramilitaries to secure political power – was signed in the same city.
Caceres also claimed that Juancho Dique himself has denied any relationship with the senator.
