Former senator Mario Uribe, cousin of former president Álvaro Uribe, lives in a apartment in Medellín that was of former paramilitary chief Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, known as ‘Don Berna’, and had been destined for the reparation of victims, official sources confirmed this Tuesday.
“This apartment was a deal between ‘Don Berna’ and former senator Mario Uribe. He still lives there, thousands of victims still wait for reparation“said the director of the Victims Unit, Lilia Solano.
(See: Where are they?: almost 400 goods delivered by Mancuso to repair victims do not appear).
The official pointed out that this is “a small sample of what has happened“with the assets of the former heads of the demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), who became “a roulette wheel that turned around and ended up in the hands of these parapoliticians linked to the financing of these paramilitary groups“.
“That is, Mario Uribe, according to the statement of (former AUC commander Salvatore) Mancuso and ‘Don Berna’, had been a financier of self-defense groups and then, later, they do this business of this apartment and other assets“added Solano.
(See: The millionaire compensation that Chiquita Brands will pay to victims of paramilitarism).
In February 2011, Uribe Escobar, a 61-year-old lawyer and president of the Colombian Congress between 2001 and 2002, He was found guilty by the Supreme Court of Justice of the “crime of aggravated conspiracy”.
The Criminal Chamber of the Court verified the ties of the former congressman with the Northern Block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia to favor his arrival in the Legislature in the 2002 elections.
However, the former senator was released in November 2012 after serving part of a sentence.
(See: Project began so that those guilty of crimes pay with alternative sanctions).
Missing property
What Solano tells happens just a week after The Government and Mancuso will denounce that almost 400 goods delivered for reparation to the victims by the former AUC commander are not in the executive’s inventory and their whereabouts are unknown.
Mancuso has been delivering to the Colombian State through the Justice and Peace processes since 2007 more than 500 assets, especially farms, properties and businesses that the AUC used, of which the Victims Unit only has inventories of 123.
This former paramilitary leader received the release order and was released last July from La Picota prison, where he had been detained since he arrived in Colombia in February after being deported from the United States, where he served a sentence of 15 years and 10 months for drug trafficking.
(See: Why Colombia is the least peaceful country in Latin America).
The AUC is the group to which the most homicides are attributed during the Colombian conflict, war crimes for which Mancuso has not yet been tried, since the sentence paid in the United States is for drug trafficking.
‘Don Berna’, meanwhile, is currently imprisoned in a United States prison where he is serving a sentence for drug trafficking. Murillo was extradited to the US along with fourteen other paramilitary leaders in May 2008.
EFE
