The former governor of the south-east Colombian Guaviare department admitted having done business with “Cuchillo,” one of the country’s most important drug lords and leader of paramilitary group ERPAC.
According to several Colombian media, former Governor Oscar Lopez Cadavid told the Supreme Court that “Cuchillo” was his business partner in a mining company at the time the paramilitary leader officially demobilized.
However, Lopez said he spent no more than three months in the company and never met with his paramilitary partner.
Lopez Cadavid is one of dozens of Colombian politicians implicated in deals with the now-demobilized paramilitary organization AUC, held responsible for the murder of more than 20,000 Colombians and until its official dismantling in 2006 considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.