The far-right former president of Colombia’s said he trusted that American rock band Interpol would arrest a missing FARC leader.
Presumably believing he was addressing the international police organization, Senator Ernesto Macias of President Ivan Duque’s Democratic Center party tweeted that “now we must truth @Interpol,” tagging the band.
Macias, of whom it is unclear if he ever finished high school, is one of the most radical members of Duque’s minority coalition in Congress and was immediately ridiculed by critics.
Until last month, the far-right senator was the president of the congressional high chamber and one of the fiercest opponents of the FARC and an ongoing peace process with the former rebels who are now a political party.
The peace process entered its latest crisis on Sunday after the FARC’s faction chief in the House of Representatives, “Jesus Santrich,” disappeared.
Duque and Macias have insisted that the FARC’s former ideologue is a drug trafficker after the US government issued an extradition request, claiming the virtually blind former rebel leader sought to traffic 10 tons of cocaine after signing a peace deal.
The war crimes tribunal rejected the extradition request after the US Department of Justice refused to surrender evidence.
After spending more than a year in jail on the so-far unsubstantiated charge, the Supreme Court ordered the FARC leader’s release while investigating the US claim.
The war crimes tribunal ordered investigations over alleged misconduct into Colombia’s former chief prosecutor and DEA agents who allegedly broke the law trying to link Santrich to drug trafficking.
Santrich disappeared and fled to Venezuela between Saturday evening and Sunday morning after he was informed about a plot to either assassinate of kidnap and extradite him illegally.