Colombian politicians actively sought support of the country’s right
wing paramilitary death squads and not the other way around, Prosecutor
General Mario Iguaran said on Tuesday.
“The paramilitaries did not seek politicians but the politicians sought
[the help of] paramilitaries,” Iguaran said
during his annual accountability speech.
According to the PG, his office is currently investigating 26 congressmen, 12 governors, 166 mayors, 58 councilmen and 13 deputies for their alleged links to paramilitary groups.
Iguaran also said he opened investigations into massacres which the country ignored, “… like the one of ‘Ramon Isaza’.” Demobilized paramilitary boss Ramon Isaza told prosecutors last October that members of
the Colombian army handed a list of seventy people that were to be assassinated to his paramilitary group.
The ‘parapolitics’ scandal was set in motion in 2005 when a member of the opposition party formally denounced links between paramilitaries and some congressmen before the Colombian Supreme Court. At least 70 lawmakers have been investigated so far for allegedly receiving paramilitary help in obtaining the votes needed to enter Congress.
Iguaran will leave office on Thursday. The Supreme Court has still not chosen a new Prosecutor General.