Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office is investigating 31 high military officials for their alleged ties to demobilized paramilitary organization AUC, newspaper El Espectador reported Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, the PG has made up a document with testimonies made by former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso that would prove the collaboration between the paramilitaries and high-ranked military and police officials.
Among the accused officials are former army general Rito Alejo del Rio, former National Police commissioner Rosso Jose Serrano, former Army General Ivan Ramirez, former Navy Admiral Rodrigo Quiñoez, former Army chief Carlos Alberto Ospina and former Army General Jesus Antonio Gomez Mendez.
Mancuso warned President Uribe weeks ago in a letter that his testimonies about the collaboration of the Colombian Armed Forces with the AUC's paramilitary death squads would be more "painful and traumatic" than the ties between politicians and the paramilitaries.
Update:
January 11, 2009 - Thanks to former general Gomez Mendez, Colombia Reports was able to look into several official documents that proved there is no and never has been any criminal investigation against the former general. The mention of Gomez Mendez in this report is therefore unjust.
Jesus Antonio Gomez
said:
 |
... Cordialmente y teniendo en cuenta su informacion publicada, le solicito aclarar lo relativo a mi nombre, indicando donde se encuentran las diligencias que usted señala estan siendo motivo de investigacion, pues hasta el momento no he sido objeto de investigacion alguna, sino de falsas acusaciones presentadas sin fundamentos ante medios de comunicacion por personas interesadas en causar mal a mi nombre; situacion sobre la cual existe una demanda instaurada por el suscrito; es deber de los periodistas verificar sus fuentes e informacion suministrada. Agradeciendo su atencion y esperando su respuesta, BG Jesus Gomez |
