Prosecutors on Wednesday request the maximum sentence to be issued against a retired army general for his alleged role in a paramilitary murder.
The sentence would fetch 25 to 40 years in prison for the controversial retired army general Rito Alejo del Rio for his alleged involvement in the aggravated homicide of Marino Lopez Mena.
The prosecution as of yet does not have enough evidence to prove that the military had a part in the 1997 murder and beheading of Lopez Mena committed by paramilitaries of the Bloque Elmer Cardenas of the AUC under the command of Freddy Rendon Herrera, alias “El Aleman.”
The retired general, once called “the peacemaker of Uraba” by the governor of Antioquia, was pointed out by community representatives as a collaborator of the paramilitaries, who killed thousands of natives in the region, according to the former mayor of Aparatado, Gloria Cuartas.
The disgraced army official is already in jail for his ties to the paramilitary organization AUC.