Colombia’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the criminal investigation of six congressman and six former congressmen over their alleged ties to a paramilitary group.
All politicians allegedly involved in “parapolitics” are from the northern Atlantico department where they have been accused of having received support from the Jose Pablo Diaz Front of the AUC’s Northern Bloc.
Implicated congressmen
- Lidio Arturo Garcia (senator for the Liberal Party)
- Eduardo Alfonso Crissien (representative for the U Party)
- Alvaro Antonio Ashton (senator for the Liberal Party)
- Luis Eduardo Diaz-Granados (representative for Cambio Radical)
- Jose David Name (senator for the U Party)
- Eduardo Carlos Merlano (senator for the U Party)
Implicated ex-congressmen
- David Char (former senator for Cambio Radical)
- Alonso Rafael Acosta (former representative for the Conservative Party)
- Tarquino Pachecho (former representative for Cambio Radical)
- Jorge Anibal Visbal (former senator for the U Party)
- Jorge Gerlein (former representative for Movimiento Nacional)
- Mario Varon (former senator for Cambio Radical)
The twelve suspected politicians have been mentioned as paramilitary collaborators by AUC commanders “Don Antonio,” “El Canoso” and “El Gordo.”
The lawmakers are added to a list of over 135 (former) congressmen investigated for having used the influence of paramilitary death squads to get elected into Congress. The Supreme Court has sentenced 38 congressmen to prison sentences since 2006.
