Colombia’s chief prosecutor announced Sunday his office will seek the arrest of another 60 politicians accused of having made deals with now-demobilized paramilitary groups.
In an interview with newspaper El Tiempo, Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre said that among the suspected “parapoliticians” are no active or national politicians, but “former members of council, former deputies and current activists of political parties.”
According to Montealegre, his office is going through 300,000 alleged human rights violations committed by the AUC, the largest paramilitary organization in the history of Colombia that officially demobilized between 2003 and 2006.
The prosecutor general also announced that his office is investigating politicians with alleged ties to guerrilla group FARC and anticipated that “if the assumptions we work on are being confirmed, they will shake the country.”
Since 2006, hundreds of politicians of all levels have been sentenced for their ties to the AUC. Investigations against alleged “FARC-politicians” have proven to be much less successful and have resulted in a handful of convictions of only local and departmental politicians.
