The Prosecutor General’s Office is preparing to press charges against former Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo for faking a demobilization of guerrilla soldiers and paramilitaries during ex-President Alvaro Uribe’s term in office, according to Caracol Radio.
Restrepo, as well as the ex-director of Military Intelligence in Tolima, Colonel Jaime Joaquin Aldana, are being charged for their crimes against the public administration and their alleged participation in the fake demobilization of FARC’s “Cacica la Gaitana” Front, the existence of which has been denied by both authorities and the FARC.
According to former guerrillas, the two government officials plotted with imprisoned FARC guerrilla “Olivo Saldaña” and a drug trafficker to gather homeless and unemployed people from the Tolima department, offer them $278 to train, live and act like FARC guerrillas, then surrender to security forces.
In another interrogation, the court expects Colombia’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic, General Mario Montoya, to testify in the case of false demobilizations, which will happen at the end of August when the official returns to Colombia. The Prosecutor General’s Office has been investigating the general because of accusations that Montoya had collaborated with paramilitary forces, as well as his involvement with the apparently fraudulent demobilization.
The Colombian Army and the Uribe administration are involved in several scandals regarding the inflation of successes in the Colombian state’s fight against illegal armed groups. The Prosecutor General’s Office is investigating the death of some 2,000 civilians who were murdered to allegedly be registered as guerrillas killed in combat in a scandal known as “false positive.” Many demobilized paramilitary members have said that several demobilizations of paramilitary groups were faked.