Jailed former paramilitary fighters put up a billboard just outside Medellin in support of peace talks between the government and rebel group FARC.
The billboard was put up alongside a road in the town of Itagui, where a number of former paramilitaries are imprisoned for crimes committed during their fight against the leftist rebels.
For unknown reasons, the billboard, showing photos of President Juan Manuel Santos and his predecessor Alvaro Uribe, was taken down Monday — hours after it was put up.
On the billboard, photos are shown of President Juan Manuel Santos and his predecessor Alvaro Uribe with a text saying “Guess who will make peace in Colombia?”
According to Medellin newspaper El Colombiano, the billboard was paid for by the “Corporacion Provictimas,” a collective formed by former paramilitaries including “Ernesto Baez.”
Pablo Hernan Sierra, brother of the former commander of an AUC bloc, told El Colombiano the former paramilitaries were “making a humanitarian gesture”and “tried to call on reflection. We have a government that is working for peace and another person who opposes building peace.”
The billboard is one in a series that were put by former vice-President Francisco Santos, second cousin of the current president, to criticize ongoing peace talks with the FARC. The initial billboard comparing FARC commander and negotiator “Ivan Marquez” with Pablo Escobar spurred a number of virtual billboards criticizing the former VP.
The AUC demobilized between 2003 and 2006 after a peace process led by Uribe.
