Uribe govt bargained with drug traffickers: Mancuso

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Uribe govt bargained with drug traffickers: Mancuso
Monday, 04 April 2011 12:25
Jim Glade

Extradited paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso has said the Uribe administration invited drug dealers to the negotiation table during the AUC demobilization process.

In an interview with El Tiempo from a jail in the United States, Mancuso, alias "El Mono Mancuso" or "Triple Cero," accused the former government and specifically the former Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo of bargaining with drug dealers during peace talks with the AUC.

"The high commissioner held meetings with drug traffickers in the AUC bloc that I commanded, with the drug traffickers that financed the Catatumbo (an AUC bloc that operated in the northeast of Colombia)," said Mancuso who went on to say that the reason for his extradition to the U.S. was an attempt by the former administration of Alvaro Uribe to silence him.

"The Colombian government has never explained to us how we will have the power to reconstruct the truth in these conditions of solitude that lack the tools for us to do so. To date, there is no clarity nor judicial security, coupled with the lack of guarantees and physical securities. They have assassinated 2,000 of our ex-companions and dozens of our relatives to silence us," said the former AUC second-in-command who is accused of over 10,000 murders.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/15364-uribe-administration-bargained-with-drug-traffickers-auc-leader.html

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http://static.guim.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/01/17/SalvatoreMancuso.jpg http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/auc/mancuso.jpg

http://static2.elespectador.com.nyud.net:8090/files/images/06f14d9abb87c2c5c29f3c6d17097b2f.jpg

AUC leader, Salvatore Mancuso