Medellin’s former mayor claimed Tuesday that fake members of demobilized paramilitary organization AUC took part in the city’s reintegration program.
While testifying at the trial of four ex-members of the AUC, former Medellin mayor Alonso Salazar claimed that there were discrepencies with the list of paramilitaries who were reintegrated into society in the 2003 Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) program, which provides financial support to former members of demobilized paramilitary groups as they are reintegrated into society.
The ex-mayor claimed that the national government forced Medellin to process over six thousand demobilized paramilitaries who were not from the city.
“The national government not only theoretically but physically abandoned the process by not sending delegates to the city or responding to comments made by the city about the program,” Salazar was quoted as saying by RCN Radio.
He referred to instances that occurred during the demobilization of the Cacique Nutibara paramilitary group, saying that his reports about irregularities to the former Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, now an international fugitive over his alleged role in the faking of a demobilization of FARC rebels, were ignored.
The Uribe government has come under increasing criticism over the peace process with the paramilitaries. The AUC demobilized 35,000 men while before the peace process they officially only had 20,000 members. Thousands of demobilized members have since rearmed.