Colombian authorities on Wednesday arrested a former army major who was supposedly held at an army base for the attempted murder on a leftist politician.
Mayor Cesar Alonso Maldonado was supposed to be serving a 27-year prison term at the Tolemaida military base in the central Colombian town of Melgar, but when prison authorities came to transfer him to Bogota’s La Picota prison, the former official had disappeared.
According to army general Alejandro Navas, Maldonado was arrested again after 800 members of the military were sent to look for him.
Maldonado escaped detention from an army base in 2004, but was arrested again in 2008.
The former army major was sentenced to 27 years in jail for the attempted murder of now-congressman Wilson Borja in 2000, who was a union leader at the time.
