Colombia's war crimes tribunal to investigate Uribe's former security chief
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to investigate Uribe’s former security chief
by Adriaan Alsema March 12, 2020
Mauricio Santoyo (C) (Image: Migracion Colombia)
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal assumed the investigation into the role of the former security chief of former President Alvaro Uribe in the killing of human rights defenders.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) took over the investigation from the Prosecutor General’s Office into the disappearances of two human rights defenders in 2000 when General Mauricio Santoyo was the chief of anti-kidnapping unit GAULA in Medellin.
The investigation could not just clarify the forced disappearances of human rights defenders Angel Quintero and Claudia Monsalve, but how the Medellin Police Department and public utilities company EPM got to work for local crime lord “Don Berna” and now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC when Uribe was governor in the late 1990s.
After being extradited to the US on drug trafficking charges, a New York court convicted Uribe’s close ally in 2012 for assisting a designated terrorist organization, the AUC.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombias-war-crimes-tribunal-to-investigate-uribes-former-security-chief/
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Mauricio Santoyo will be deported to Colombia. Will he respond to justice?
ByGeneral EditorPosted on 03/14/2019
Mar 14 CI.- The former security chief of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, sentenced to 13 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking, will be deported to Colombia by the North American authorities after paying 93 months in prison. They are investigating him in the country for the disappearance of two human rights defenders in 2000, for their ties to paramilitaries and for obstructing investigations in the case of the murder of Jaime Garzón.
Mauricio Santoyo, former security chief of today's senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, was sentenced in 2012 to 13 years in prison for helping paramilitaries send drugs to US territory. The retired general, who surrendered to agents of the Drug Control Administration -DEA, in Bogotá, accepted before a court in the Eastern District of Virginia to have collaborated with the Envigado Office and paramilitary blocks between 2001 and 2008.
According to a document from the US justice system, Santoyo accepted having illegally intercepted more than 1,800 telephone lines to deliver information from human rights defenders and leftist leaders to the paramilitaries.
Some commanders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia -AUC- who are serving sentences in United States prisons, have stated that Santoyo was a man close to the armed structures of this organization in Antioquia. Juan Carlos "El Tuso" Sierra, Salvatore Mancuso and Carlos Mario Jiménez "Macaco" have claimed before US authorities and Justice and Peace Courts that the former officer shared intelligence information to identify leftist leaders. In addition, they have assured on several occasions that he had meetings with Carlos Mario Aguilar, former head of the Envigado Office and that he was a trusted man of Carlos Castaño.
Google translated from:
https://www.colombiainforma.info/%EF%BB%BFmauricio-santoyo-sera-deportado-a-colombia-respondera-a-la-justicia/
More at link.
Jaime Garzón
Former Colombia intelligence chief ordered legendary comedian’s assassination
by Mathew Di Salvo August 14, 2018
A former top official of Colombia’s now-defunct state intelligence agency ordered the killing one of Colombia’s most beloved comedians, a court ruled Tuesday.
Possible state involvement is also being considered, with an army colonel with alleged links to paramilitaries being investigated for the murder, reports El Tiempo.
Narvaez was already in prison for his involvement in the spying on Colombia’s Supreme Court in 2008 when the DAS was reporting directly to former President Alvaro Uribe, whose cousin was on trial for ties to death squads at the time.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/top-intelligence-official-convicted-for-killing-colombias-most-popular-comedian/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142133708
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Earlier Wikipedia, Jaime Garzón, the murdered comedian:
Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero (October 24, 1960 – August 13, 1999 in Bogotá) was a Colombian comedian, journalist, politician, and peace activist. He was popular on colombian television during the 1990s for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered in 1999 by right-wing paramilitary hitmen, with suspected support from members of the Colombian military and security services, according to testimonies of former paramilitaries commanders.[1][2] The case remains open and unsolved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Garz%C3%B3n
Jaime Garzón memorial
Another Jaime Garzón memorial
Former Colombia intelligence chief ordered legendary comedian’s assassination
by Mathew Di Salvo August 14, 2018
A former top official of Colombia’s now-defunct state intelligence agency ordered the killing one of Colombia’s most beloved comedians, a court ruled Tuesday.
Possible state involvement is also being considered, with an army colonel with alleged links to paramilitaries being investigated for the murder, reports El Tiempo.
Narvaez was already in prison for his involvement in the spying on Colombia’s Supreme Court in 2008 when the DAS was reporting directly to former President Alvaro Uribe, whose cousin was on trial for ties to death squads at the time.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/top-intelligence-official-convicted-for-killing-colombias-most-popular-comedian/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142133708
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Earlier Wikipedia, Jaime Garzón, the murdered comedian:
Jaime Hernando Garzón Forero (October 24, 1960 – August 13, 1999 in Bogotá) was a Colombian comedian, journalist, politician, and peace activist. He was popular on colombian television during the 1990s for his political satire. In addition to his work on television, he also had roles as a peace negotiator in the release of FARC guerrillas' hostages. He was murdered in 1999 by right-wing paramilitary hitmen, with suspected support from members of the Colombian military and security services, according to testimonies of former paramilitaries commanders.[1][2] The case remains open and unsolved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Garz%C3%B3n
Jaime Garzón's car, after assassination.