Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana asked the Organization of American States (OAS) Thursday to investigate alleged fraud by the administration of Alvaro Uribe in the demobilization of paramilitary organization AUC.
According to Pastrana, Uribe “flooded the system” with 12 thousand fake paramilitaries who demobilized together with genuine paramilitary fighters.
In the letter to OAS president Jose Miguel Insulza, Pastrana said that leaked diplomatic cables showed that the OAS itself noted there were serious inconsistencies in the figures of demobilized members of paramilitary groups.
“The then commander of the Army, General Jorge Mora, told me on August 6, 2002, there were 18,000 paramilitaries, and on August 8 Alvaro Uribe said that there were 50,000,” said the former president.
According to Pastrana, one of the issues that aroused suspicion was “the disparity between the official figures of armed people … and the number of people who benefited from the benefits of the [peace] process” with paramilitaries under Uribe’s government.
Pastrana called on the OAS to decide on “the consequences” that the government of Uribe should face after having “flooded the system” with more than 12,000 falsely demobilized paramilitaries.
Colombia’s former peace commissioner under Uribe, Luis Carlos Restrepo, is currently under investigation for allegedly conspiring with an imprisoned FARC member and a drug trafficker in planning the surrender of dozens of homeless people paid to dress as guerrillas in an act of “false demobilization.”
The Peace commissioner is also investigated over his alleged knowledge of the inflating of numbers of demobilized paramilitaries between 2003 and 2006.
Restrepo has denied allegations of his involvement and Uribe has publicly and passionately defended his former aide, labeling the accusations as political conspiracies.