Colombia’s demobilized paramilitary organization AUC was responsible for bringing President Alvaro Uribe to power, claimed drug trafficker Miguel Angel Mejia Munera, alias ‘The Twin’, on Tuesday.
‘The Twin’ was captured and extradited to the U.S. in March, where he has remained largely silent, until now, reported newspaper El Espectador.
Testifying before the Prosecutor General, Mejia Munera announced that “the AUC paramilitaries launched Uribe into the Presidency.”
According to ‘The Twin’, paramilitaries killed AUC founder Vicente Castaño following what were “practically orders from the Presidential Palace.”
He stated that AUC members killed Castaño after the Colombian Government promised they would not be extradited. The assumed murder of Castaño is still unsolved as his body was never found and other demobilized paramilitaries have testified he is still alive.
Moreover, The Twin repeated complaints about the former governor of the department of Arauca, Julio Acosta Bernal, claiming that Bernal had offered full support to the AUC operating in the region and convinced the paramilitaries not to demobilize in exchange for financial support and weapons.
Similarly, ‘The Twin’ reported that the AUC unit he was part of had the full support and cooperation of the police and army in the department of Arauca.
Mejia Munera’s testimony is ongoing and comes in accordance with Colombia’s Justice and Peace Law, a law intended to allow the demobilization of the AUC and aimed to seek closure of crimes committed by the paramilitaries.