Colombia Grants “Probationary” Release to Former Paramilitary Leader Salvatore Mancuso

The Colombian courts have allowed former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso to be released on probation. Mancuso, deported to Colombia from the United States last week after completing his sentence for drug trafficking, has been in La Picota prison, in Bogota. Upon his return, he appeared before two special courts focused on peace, the Justice and Peace and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). The decision to release him was made yesterday.

Mancuso has pledged to help shed light on the crimes of the paramilitary group he led in the 90s. The Colombian government has named him a peace mediator. His role is to help bring remaining paramilitary groups into the peace talks initiated by President Petro’s administration, known as Total Peace.

Parole for four years

Yesterday, Monday, March 4, the court of Bogota decided the legal situation of the ex-paramilitary, which until that moment was still undetermined. “Since the only two requirements are satisfied, the convicted postulate Salvatore Mancuso Gomez is granted probation for a period of four years,” said the judge in the case, Luz Marina Zamora, in a final hearing in which the probation of the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) was set.

The judge of Bogota argued that the former paramilitary complied with the commitments of justice and made reparations to the victims; however, he is still at the disposal of a magistrate of Justice and Peace of Barranquilla, because of the 33 arrest warrants that he has registered in that court.

The so-called Justice and Peace court is a special court, created in 2005 by then president Alvaro Uribe, to try the cases of demobilized paramilitaries, within the transitional justice system, which is used in civil wars or conflicts that have repeatedly violated human rights.

Unfinished business with the courts

Mancuso still faces unresolved legal matters. The judge’s decision yesterday allows for his release, provided he is not sought by other law enforcement authorities. This condition pertains to ongoing legal actions in Barranquilla and 14 cases in Bogota.

Likewise, Salvatore Mancuso will have to notify the address where he resides, and he will not be able to leave Colombia without the authorization of a judge. Nor will he have total freedom of movement within the country, since among other restrictions, Mancuso will be forbidden to visit territories where he committed crimes as a paramilitary. That is to say, he will not be able to move around the departments of Cordoba, Sucre, Bolivar, Atlantico, Cesar, Magdalena, Norte de Santander and La Guajira, as well as the Antioquian municipalities of San Pedro de Uraba, Necocli, Ituango, Arboletes and Apartado.

It has also been confirmed that Mancuso will receive protection from the Colombian state once he is released. However, in order to continue to receive this protection, the former paramilitary must comply with a series of requirements. Among these, it is important to highlight compliance with the restrictions of movement imposed by the judge, with the ban on carrying arms and with his commitments as a peace mediator.

Reparations to victims

On the other hand, Salvatore Mancuso agreed to hand over more than 100 properties, with a value in the millions, in order to make reparations to the victims, one of the commitments of those subjected to this type of transitional justice, which seeks truth and reparation.

Photographs revealed by the Colombian public television RTVC showed some of the properties that were seized by the Prosecutor’s Office, which was one of the entities that agreed to the release of the former paramilitary leader. Although the location of these properties is unknown, it has been reported that in total they are valued at approximately five million dollars.

These decisions were taken “…..in order to have, in the short term, definitive conclusions regarding the pursuit of assets with respect to the mentioned applicants and all the former members of the mentioned criminal organization, which is not only presented with respect to Salvatore Mancuso, but in general of all those who served as commanders of the different structures of the self-defense groups”, said the judge during the hearing.