Colombian authorities have captured 11 of at least 60 politicians who are accused of having signed pacts with paramilitary organization AUC, Radio Caracol reported Sunday.
Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office is currently pursuing former mayors, former councilmen, deputies, and even some current councilmen from Colombia’s central Magdalena valley who signed the “Chivolo” and “Pivijay” pacts with the AUC in the early 2000s.
Prosecution investigators have not announced which politicians have been arrested.
Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre announced last week that his office was ready to release 60 more arrest warrants for politicians with ties to the paramilitaries.
In the Chivolo Pact, which was signed by more than 400 leaders in the village of La Estrella on September 28, 2000, local leaders aligned with extradited paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40” in order to receive his electoral “blessing.”
In the Pivijay Pact, another group of politicians joined forces with Jorge 40 in order to receive support and votes for the 2002 congressional campaigns of Jose Gamarra, Dieb Maloof, Jorge Castro and Gustavo Orozco. The pact was signed in the municipality of Pivijay, Magdalena department on November 22, 2001.
Since 2006, hundreds of politicians have been sentenced for making deals with the AUC, which was determined a terrorist organization by the U.S. until its official demobilization between 2003 and 2006.