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(CNN Spanish) - He is known as the FARC singer, he was imprisoned in Venezuela for more than three years, he was killed in the operation that killed that guerrilla number two, Raul Reyes, the United States came to offer for his capture Up to 2.5 million dollars, he was negotiator of the peace agreements in Havana, Cuba, and is now the first ex-combatant to be elected as mayor.
Guillermo Torres, best known for his alias during the conflict, 'Julián Conrado', obtained more than 21,400 votes this Sunday in his native Turbaco, in the department of Bolívar, managing to rise as the winner of the elections to the mayor of the municipality with more than 50% of the votes.
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Under the slogan "Beloved we will win," Torres presented his political project focused on combating corruption, a key point for the Colombian coast. The center or alternative parties had a good day this Sunday in the 2019 general elections, and in many departments they surpassed the political machinery.
Conrado openly supported the peace process and during his campaign reinforced his message of "love against war" and criticized those who want to "return it to the mountain"
My reflection today in the JEP: With the slogan of love we will tear the war process to pieces. pic.twitter.com/6nQTL1dSpW
- Julián Conrado (@alzadoencanto) April 29, 2019
Conrado celebrated his victory with a message on Twitter:
Turbaco, my people, thank you for so much love ... Now I only ask for wisdom and science to achieve, among all, the changes that lead us to prosperity with values. Loving we will win !!!
- Julián Conrado (@alzadoencanto) October 28, 2019
Torres was not launched to the mayor's office by the FARC party, made up of ex-combatants after the 2016 peace process in which much of the group's guerrillas were demobilized, but by the alliance of the Colombia Humana and Patriotic Union parties .
The elected mayor was born on August 17, 1954 in Bolívar. He was a member of the FARC General Staff and, according to the US Department of State, participated in the guerrilla group’s drug trafficking operations and in the policies of “murder of hundreds of people who interfered with the FARC’s cocaine policy " For information that will lead to his capture or arrest, USA. He even offered up to 2.5 million dollars. Torres was part of the US Treasury Department sanction list.
The FARC said that the crimes attributed to Conrado were “derisory” and affirmed on the official website of the Conrad of the FARC that: “Except for some discrete claim of their militancy, the guerrilla organization left the fight in the hands of international solidarity for his release. "
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Conrado never faced Colombian justice for the charges he is accused of, since like all ex-combatants in the peace process, he took advantage of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in which he appeared on the kidnappings in April of this year.
“They have a mistake with that issue, I am not from the staff, nor from the FARC secretariat, that is, I do not understand why they quoted me because in these statements they are citing members of the staff, however, I assume my responsibility as a singer of the town and of the truth ”, said Torres in front of the JEP, according to the newspaper El Pilón.
In Colombia's peace process, drug trafficking was established as a crime related to political crimes, one of the most controversial points of the agreements.
In 2008, during the operation in which Raúl Reyes was shot down - and that unleashed a diplomatic problem with Ecuador - it was initially reported that Conrado was among the deceased. Subsequently the authorities clarified that it was not so
In 2011 he was captured in Venezuela where he remained three years in prison. In January 2014, he was released to join the negotiating group in the peace process between the Government and the FARC guerrillas. The agreement was signed in 2016 and 'Julián Conrado' was demobilized.
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In an interview in 2013, Conrado said that Jacobo Arenas, one of the founders of the FARC, was the one who told him to sing.
“He told me that the Cuban Revolution was made more like songs than bullets. And that the Nicaraguan became more of a song than a bullet. I wanted to be a guerrilla like all guerrillas, ”he recalled.
Torres beat in Turbaco candidates from traditional parties such as Radical Change and the Conservative Party. The FARC party celebrated their election, as did former chiefs, ex-combatants and others:
Guillermo Torres, peace artist and poet of life is the first former guerrilla of the former FARC-EP to win a mayor's office. The people of Turbaco celebrate this achievement of the peace process. Best wishes, we love peace and loving we will win! #FirmesConLaPaz 🌹🇨🇴 @alzadoencanto pic.twitter.com/xxsqU1S1rC
- FARC (@PartidoFARC) October 27, 2019
#Happy Monday the chords of peace and reconciliation sound. In the face of all difficulties, we continue to open the gap and roads for a #NuevaColombia 🌹🕊️ @alzadoencanto congratulations. pic.twitter.com/QpIUeCFZXz
- Rodrigo Londoño (@TimoFARC) October 28, 2019
Very happy with the triumph of Julián Conrado in #turbaco. @alzadoencanto I hug you and I wish you many successes !! pic.twitter.com/dY7TdeLXPN
- Tanja Nijmeijer (@Tanja_FARC) October 28, 2019
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