Paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias ‘Jorge 40’, in his last chance to be eligible for justice under the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), has blamed the internal conflict on the Colombian state «by omission for all the tragedy» that the country has suffered for decades and for the fact that people like him were forced to take up arms.
«Here the State has to respond and assume its responsibilities for the fact that they were the first responsible by omission for all the tragedy that we have lived through in Colombia,» said ‘Jorge 40’ in Thursday’s hearing.
Jorge 40′ blamed the Colombian state for the violence suffered by many localities and municipalities in the country by forgetting to protect citizens harassed, he said, by guerrillas such as the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or the National Liberation Army (ELN).
«All this happened in broad daylight (…) People were mute and silent. Everyone tried to save their own situation. The illegal organizations took advantage of all the omission of the institutions, including the justice system», said ‘Jorge 40’, justifying those who took up arms illegally.
«I hope they take the time to put themselves in Rodrigo Tovar’s shoes or in those of so many people who paid a high cost at that time,» protested the man who once commanded the Northern Bloc of the extinct United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Before ‘Jorge 40’ answered questions from the audience, he addressed the victims to offer them «profound» and «sincere» apologies «for all the pain and damage caused» as a combatant and as a third party collaborator, a legal figure with which he hopes to benefit from the special justice of the JEP.
This is the last chance for ‘Jorge 40’ to avail himself of this type of special justice, which emerged after the agreements with the FARC in 2016, which does not include paramilitary groups in its jurisdiction. His plan is to prove that he participated in Colombia’s internal conflict as a third party civilian collaborator.
‘Jorge 40’ will give his last statement this Friday before the JEP’s final decision from La Picaleña prison in the city of Ibagué (Tolima), where he has been since his return from the United States in 2020 after serving a 12-year sentence for drug trafficking. He was recently sentenced to 40 years for a double murder in 1999.
Like other paramilitaries such as Salvatore Mancuso, ‘Jorge 40’ also joined the demobilization policy of former president Alvaro Uribe, but was expelled for not accepting his involvement in the recruitment of minors, crimes of gender violence and kidnapping. He did acknowledge his participation in more than 1,400 crimes, among them 300 massacres, for which he will now have to answer if he does not manage to get a hold of the JEP.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
