Former head of paramilitary organization AUC, Carlos Castaño, ordered the murder of Jaime Garzon at the specific request of senior military commanders, claimed ex-paramilitary chief ‘El Aleman’ on Monday.
Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias ‘El Aleman’, has brought the case back into the light ten years after the murder of the comedian Garzon with statements made yesterday to the prosecution in a Justice and Peace process.
According to Colombian media, ‘El Aleman’ declared that one of the ‘Castaño Brothers’, Vicente Castaño, had told him that Carlos Castaño had taken charge to order the killing of Garzon and that they had the support of some military leaders as well as important persons in Bogota. Castaño had allegedly been visited by important military personel in the lead up to the murder.
‘El Aleman’ also claimed that he met Jose Miguel Narvaez, the former deputy director of Colombian intelligence agency DAS, in 1997 in one of Carlos Castaño’s paramilitary training schools. Narvaez is currently being investigated for his alleged implication in the killing of Garzon.
Though ‘El Aleman’ said he did not know whether Narvaez had been involved in the Garzon murder, he did state that the ex DAS deputy gave the AUC the addresses of journalists, NGO members and students who were thought to have links with FARC guerrillas.
“We took the addresses and names that he gave us because those people were leftist guerrillas infiltrating universities, NGO’s and the media and they had to be killed” concluded ‘El Aleman’.