Former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso said he was paid $2.8 million to help elect Mario Iguaran to the Prosecutor General position in 2005, reported local media Wednesday.
The former second-in-command of the AUC testified to a prosecutor assigned by the Supreme Court that Jose Felix Lafaurie, president of Colombia’s cattle association, asked the paramilitary group to support the election of Iguaran as Prosecutor General. Mancuso alleges the AUC received $2.8 million after Iguaran was elected.
Testifying via teleconference, Mancuso detailed a meeting that allegedly took place in May 2005 between him, Lafaurie and then-Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt de la Vega to discuss the upcoming election.
Lafaurie has called the allegations “preposterous” in newspaper El Tiempo.
“The suggestion that these commanders could influence the election should be dismissed in court,” he said.
Mancuso has yet to provide any evidence to back his claims.
The infiltration of paramilitary groups into Colombian politics has become popularly known as “parapolitics.” Former president Alvaro Uribe and dozens of his former officials have been implicated in the scandal, with many facing prosecutions.
