Three state officials from Colombia’s northern Cordoba department have been sentenced to prison for their collaboration with the right-wing paramilitary organization AUC, radio station Caracol reported Friday.
The court said Antonio Viana Madera, an ex-departmental agricultural official, Pedro José Martínez ex-spokesperson and Juan Antonio Jabib, of unspecified profession, were found guilty of signing the so-called Mariscos pact, an illegal power sharing deal between state officials and the local AUC commander Fredy Rendón Herrera, alias ”El Aleman.”
All three respondents admitted to the charges held against them.
El Aleman’s paramilitary “Bloque Elmer Cardenas” of the AUC is suspected of more than 100 crimes against humanity in Colombia’s northwestern Uraba region.
According to Colombia’s prosecutor general’s office, 943 Colombian politicians and state officials have been linked to the now demobilized AUC.
