Bolivian police will immediately hand over the cousin and confidante of the paramilitary leader “Martin Llanos” to Colombian authorities for prosecution for terrorism and drug trafficking, reported El Espectador Wednesday.
Following months of coordination with the Colombian state, Bolivian police arrested Carlos Noel Buitrago Vega, alias “Porremacho,” Tuesday in the eastern Bolivian department of Santa Cruz.
The cousin of the detainee, Hector German Buitrago Parada, alias “Martin Llanos,” was the leader of the Peasant Self Defense Forces of Casanare (ACC), a faction of the Colombian umbrella paramilitary organization AUC. An internal AUC war in 2004 virtually destroyed the ACC, but Martin Llanos never demobilized in the government’s peace process and is believed to still be active in the central eastern Casanare region.
Like his cousin, Porremacho is allegedly heavily involved criminal activity. The Bolivian minister of the interior referred to Porremacho as the “big fish” of drug trafficking.
According to the unit commander of the Bolivian Task Force to Combat Drug Trafficking, Porremacho entered Bolivia two years ago with the “stated mission” to link Bolivia to drug traffickers in South America.
Bolivia is the world’s third largest cocaine producer, after Colombia and Peru.
The Bolivian minister of the interior announced that his state “has made the decision to immediately expel [Porremacho] and hand him over to the Colombian government.”