A former paramilitary commander was sentenced to 22 years in jail on Thursday for the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of a mayor in 2003.
Edilson Cifuentes Hernandez, alias “Richard,” former commander of the Centaurs Bloc of the AUC, was convicted over crimes committed against Aristobulo Briceño, the then-mayor of Calamar, in the department of Bolivar, and another man, Tito Alfonso Galindo, on July 16, 2003, says a press release from the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The prosecution found Richard intercepted Briceño, Galindo, and two other men on their way to their hotel, and took them to a deserted site on the banks of the Guaviare River.
He then threatened them with guns before releasing two of them and leaving Briceño and Galindo in a canoe.
The whereabouts of Briceño and Galindo is still unknown.
Richard is being held in La Picota jail in Bogota.
