Colombia’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday asked a Bogota court to revoke judicial benefits of a leading member of the paramilitary organization AUC, stating he has failed to collaborate with prosecutors.
According to Prosecutor General Eduardo Montealegre, Carlos Mario Jimenez alias “Macaco,” has not been giving correct information about the his paramilitary group’s activities during the 1990s and should therefore be expelled from the justice and peace program, which grants judicial benefits to former paramilitaries if they collaborate with justice and compensate their victims.
Profile: AUC
Wednesday’s decision confirmed earlier reports that Macaco would indeed be excluded from the benefits of justice and peace, should the Bogota Tribunal fulfill the prosecutor general’s request.
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Macaco is currently serving a 33-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of drug trafficking to that country. In July 2012, the former warlord said he would refuse to collaborate with Justice and Peace unless given legal immunity in the United States.
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If the court decides to exclude Macaco, he will face charges in front of an ordinary court the moment he returns to Colombia, thereby increasing the probability of a prison sentence longer than eight years, the maximum penalty of paramilitaries within the program.
The jailed paramilitary demobilized together with 2,518 members of the Central Bolivar Bloc on January 23, 2006.
The group’s activities caused between 14,000 and 22,000 victims in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Under the Justice and Peace Law, victims are defined as those assassinated, displaced and disappeared due to violence by armed actors.