45 Colombian congress members convicted over paramilitary ties since 2006
45 Colombian congress members convicted over paramilitary ties since 2006
posted by Taran Volckhausen
Dec 10, 2013
Colombia’s Supreme Court said it has convicted 45 congressmen and 7 governors for connections to paramilitary organizations since investigations into an ongoing “parapolitics” scandal broke in 2006.
Seven governors were additionally convicted for the same crime, the Supreme Court told Colombia Reports.
Parapolitics refers to the ties between now-disbanded paramilitary umbrella organization AUC, who earned revenue fighting left-wing guerrillas and trafficking drugs, and Colombian lawmakers and public officials.
The hunt for parapolitics in Colombia’s congress began in 2005 after Vicente Castaño, a late leader of the AUC, bragged to magazine Semana, “paramilitary groups count more than 35 percent of the Congress as friends.”
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombia-congress-members-convicted-parapolitics/