International
Ex-paramilitary Salvatore Mancuso: “I got out of prison with a sentence served; I don’t owe anything to Justice”
The former head of the paramilitary United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) Salvatore Mancuso, who left the La Picota prison in Bogotá on Wednesday, assured on Thursday that he owes nothing to Justice, despite the trials for the thousands of crimes committed by that group during the armed conflict, and said that he has already served his sentence.
“I was released from prison with the sentence served,” Mancuso said at a press conference in which he insisted: “I don’t owe anything to Colombian justice or any country in the world.”
Mancuso received the release order and left La Picota on Wednesday, where he had been detained since he arrived in Colombia last February after being deported from the United States where he served a sentence of 15 years and 10 months for drug trafficking.
However, since he arrived deported to Colombia on February 27, his status is in doubt, since there are several justices – the ordinary, Justice and Peace (created after the demobilization of the AUC) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (created with the peace agreement with the FARC) – that debate who should deal with the ex-paramilitary.
Finally, on Wednesday Justicia y Paz gave the green light for his release and the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec), after sending 31 letters to several judicial offices to find out if there were security measures against him, also gave viability to the release of the ex-paramilitary.
Therefore, Mancuso added that now that he has “recovered freedom” the “peace management” entrusted to him by the Government of President Gustavo Petro will begin and today he is going to meet with the commissioner of the peace adviser, Otty Patiño, “to be able to program and organize everything that has to do with the agenda that I must develop in the country.”
The AUC is the group to which the most homicides are attributed during the Colombian conflict, war crimes for which Mancuso has not yet been tried, since the penalty paid in the United States is for drug trafficking.
However, the Government considers that as a “peace manager” it can help repair some of those wounds and, for example, help in the recovery of bodies of disappeared by paramilitaries in both Colombia and Venezuela.
“I want to tell the victims of the violence of the armed conflict, for which I am responsible, that there is no justification for the immense pain and suffering that we cause them, the atrocities committed,” Mancuso said.
And he continued: “My return to Colombia will not heal those wounds, there are pains that are irreparable, but I will do everything in my power to help heal those wounds.”
In addition, Mancuso assured that he will not act driven by revenge or retaliation, making an apparent indirect allusion to former President Álvaro Uribe, who is said to be his former “ally” and who later signed his extradition to the United States.
“For tricks of some, I was deprived of liberty much longer than it should be,” said Mancuso, who criticized that he was deprived of liberty for 17 years and 11 months in the United States and that he did not leave before “because there were pressures.”
Uribe was the one who negotiated the demobilization of the AUC, which have been accused on numerous occasions of working in alliance with the State forces to fight the guerrillas.
But today, the former paramilitary head called on him to be “allies” again to work for the peace of the country.
International
Seven bodies found with signs of torture in Sinaloa
Mexican authorities discovered seven lifeless bodies on Wednesday, showing clear signs of torture, in the rural area of Culiacán, Sinaloa, just one day after the same number of bodies was found in several municipalities in the western state of Mexico.
Six of these seven victims were found along the side of the highway that connects Culiacán to Mazatlán, near Laguna de Canachi, according to local media reports, which also noted that messages addressed to a criminal group were found near the bodies.
This brings the total number of violent deaths in the region to seven within just 24 hours. On Tuesday, authorities reported more victims found in the municipalities of Culiacán, Elota, and Mazatlán.
Among the victims identified was a local cattle rancher named Ramón Velázquez Ontiveros, as well as a police officer from Mazatlán, who was killed by a motorcyclist outside his home in San Marcos.
International
Málaga paralyzed by new storm as torrential rains hit Spain
Thousands of people were evacuated and trains were suspended as torrential rains once again struck Spain on Wednesday, following the devastating floods that killed at least 223 people two weeks ago, most of them in the Valencia region.
The national meteorological agency (Aemet) issued a maximum, red-level alert for the Andalusian province of Málaga in the south, and for Tarragona in the northeast, due to the new DANA (isolated depression at high levels), also known as a cold drop.
The city of Málaga appeared to be the hardest hit by the rains, with more than 3,000 people evacuated from 1,000 homes near rivers, flooded streets, and the suspension of urban transport and train services to Madrid.
“Today Málaga is paralyzed,” said Andalusia’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, to reporters. “I know it is a problem for citizens not being able to take their children to school or go to work, but after what we saw in Valencia, we need to ‘prevent’ and minimize the impact in terms of loss of life,” he added.
The storm also led to the postponement of a match between Spain and Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup women’s tennis competition, which was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Málaga.
International
Hezbollah launches explosive drone strike on Israel’s defense headquarters
The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday that it launched an attack with explosive drones against the Israeli army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The Iran-backed organization reported in a statement that it had carried out “an aerial attack with a squadron of explosive drones” targeting the site that houses Israel’s main defense institutions.
Hezbollah later stated that it also fired a barrage of rockets at the Glilot military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military indicated that “sirens sounded in several areas of northern and central Israel following the launch of projectiles from Lebanon.”
It later clarified that “five projectiles were identified over the territory, and some were intercepted.”
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