The Colombian government removed 251 people from a list of 14,178 FARC members on claims they were never part of the demobilized guerrilla group.
According to the Peace Commissioner, in the excluded group were 19 drug traffickers wanted for extradition by the United States who had falsely claimed to be FARC guerrillas.
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration has been surrendering information to the Colombian government to prevent non-FARC drug traffickers be shielded from extradition.
Almost 3,000 of the reported FARC members are still being verified.
The Peace Commissioner’s Office revised the FARC’s list after newspaper El Tiempo reported that a Bogota crime lord had appeared on the list of “peace managers” despite him never having belonged to the FARC.
Government authorities and the FARC subsequently purified the list to prevent an inflation as occurred during the demobilization of paramilitary group AUC between 2003 and 2006.
Multiple high-profile drug traffickers subsequently demobilized without ever having been member of any of the paramilitary groups.
The former peace commissioner who served former President Alvaro Uribe has fled Colombia after being accused of facilitating the inflation.
Since the beginning of the FARC’s verification process, 8,322 former guerrillas and 2,971 prisoners were certified as members of the group.
Those unaffiliated with the group will not be able to enjoy judicial benefits granted to the guerrillas and militia members.
The Marxist FARC demobilized and disarmed its troops after closing a peace deal with the Colombian government in November 2016. It has since formed a political party that will take seat in Congress after elections held in March next year.
