Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced Monday that it will try the Governor of the Guaviare department for his alleged links to paramilitary boss ‘Cuchillo’.
The Prosecution declared its intentions to bring Governor Oscar Lopez Cadavid to trial for allegedly maintaining connections with Pedro ‘Cuchillo’ Guerrero, one of Colombia’s most wanted paramilitary leaders, who controls much of the region.
According to news site Noticias Uno – who claimed to be the first to announce the news – Cadavid denied everything and used public resources and local media to contradict the information reported by Noticias Uno.
Noticias claimed that the Prosecution are charging Cadavid with supposedly maintaining a mining exploitation company with the infamous Cuchillo and for buying a finca from paramilitaries who had forcibly removed the owner.
The Prosecution first analysed the case of the company Exploracion y Exportacion Minera del Llano LTDA, in which Cadavid and Cuchillo were allegedly partners. Cadavid claimed that at the time facts regarding this partnership were collected, Cuchillo had been demobilized.
However, investigators deem this to be false for at the time of the alleged partnership, Cuchillo did not present himself with the other participating paramilitary members to authorities for the demobilization peace process in August 2006.
In addition, the investigation details that Cadavid has been the owner of an expansive farmhouse since 2001, which according to its true owner and the testimonies of various witnesses, was illegally seized by paramilitaries on the orders of their leader Vicente Castaño.
Cadavid supposedly met with Cuchillo at the farmhouse and the paramilitary leader offered financial support to the governor during his political campaign in 2007.