Petro reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model
How Colombia’s judicial reform seeks to solve prison...
Colombia’s chief prosecutor says paramilitaries kidnapped, interrogated investigators
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges...
Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges
Colombia preparing tropical paradise for tourism after 500...
Hacktivists leak 178,000 documents from Colombia’s military
Colombia sentenced for exterminating political party
Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy
OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
News

Colombia’s ex-intelligence chief jailed over 1989 assassination of liberal presidential candidate

by AFP November 25, 2016
5.5k

A former head of Colombia’s intelligence services was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison for involvement in the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan by drug-gang hitmen.

Retired general Miguel Maza was convicted of conspiracy and “homicide with terrorist ends” over Galan’s killing, the Supreme Court of Justice said in a statement.

The assassination occurred when Maza was director of the now-defunct Administrative Security Department (DAS), charged with providing Galan’s security.

Galan was the leading candidate for Colombia’s 1990 presidential vote when he was gunned down in front of thousands of people at a campaign rally on August 18, 1989.

The charismatic Liberal Party senator had vowed to extradite drug kingpins to the United States, including Pablo Escobar, the powerful head of the Medellin cartel.

Escobar’s top hitman, John Jairo “Popeye” Velazquez, was arrested in 1992 and convicted of the killing.

Liberal politician Alberto Santofimio, a rival of Galan, was later convicted of orchestrating the hit.


Politician convicted of Galan murder blasts Colombian justice

“The Supreme Court of Justice determined that [Maza] took part in the plan to assassinate the well-known political leader, weakening his security detail by assigning it to a hand-picked agent,” the court said.

Maza, who was arrested three years ago, denied the charges.

Galan was killed along with a bodyguard and a local official at the rally in the Bogota suburb of Soacha.

Another bodyguard was wounded.

Galan was one of four presidential candidates killed in the bloody run-up to the 1990 vote, as Colombia’s powerful drug lords waged war on a political movement to extradite them to the United States.

He was replaced on the Liberal ticket by Cesar Gaviria, who went on to win the election.

Escobar was ultimately killed in a rooftop gunfight with police in Medellin in 1993.

Luis Carlos GalanPablo Escobar

Trending

  • Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges over failed plot to extradite former FARC chief

  • Petro’s reveals strategy to change Colombia’s socio-economic model

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • How Colombia’s former president helped kick-start the Medellin Cartel

  • Colombia commemorates 30 years without Luis Carlos Galan as questions remain

  • Medellin demolishes Pablo Escobar’s iconic former building

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion