Former FARC guerrilla “Biofilo,” who headed the fake demobilization of a non-existent FARC front, says his former associates and government officials were in involved in other staged demobilizations.
Speaking to Colombian newscast Noticias Uno, Biofilo, whose real name is Felipe Salazar said that former guerrilla Olivo Saldaña participated in another false-demobilization before that of the “Cacica Gaitana” front, for which the guerrilla and fugitive former peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo is on trial.
“The [first] false-demobilization was ‘Norma Patricia Galeano’ […] The FARC took up that name and created an urban structure that they supposedly demobilized in November 2006, which Olivio Saldaña took part in,” said Biofilo.
According to Biofilo, authorities must have known that the “Cacica” surrender was staged, since the name of the group was already known to security services and the same people were involved in the previous allegedly fake demobilization.
Saldaña, who received both financial and legal benefits from the former administration of President Alvaro Uribe, has both denied that “Cacica” was a false-demobilization, stating that it operated as a real branch of the FARC, and admitted the demobilization was fake, but that he was solely responsible for the fraud.