Colombian television station RCN said Wednesday that Figueroa Ordóñez had paid the FARC 2 million Colombian pesos to abduct the politicians and settle a drug debt he had with the gurrillas. The sources the newspaper checked deny this and say it was a FARC-only operation.Sources checked by El País deny the abduction, which occurred on April 11, 2002 in Cali, was a payment to the guerrillas and stressed the Farc warned that those who were identified and carried out the kidnapping .W’s lawyer blames the story on a leaked testimony by FARC deserter Édver Fajardo, who earlier also linked colonel Bayron Carvajal, convicted for the Jamundí massacre, to Figueroa. “What happens is that the media base a story on an incomplete version of demobilized guerilla,” the lawyer said.The lawyer wrote a complaint about the leaking of information to prosecutor Maritza Escobar.The twelve deputies were kidnapped from inside the Department’s Assembly by guerrillas dressed as military personnel. Eleven of them died in what the FARC said was “crossfire with unknown enemy forces.” The Government accused the guerrillas of having executed them and denies having been in the are at that time.‘W’ was arrested in June last year and is investigated for drug trafficking.
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