Salvatore Mancuso, left, in a 2007 photo and Rodrigo Londoño during an event in Bogotá in 2019 LUIS BENAVIDES / FERNANDO VERGARA
The peace process between the FARC and the Government of Colombia has allowed us to see the unimaginable in a country accustomed to war, after more than fifty years of conflict.
Ex-combatants who had not done anything other than firing a gun now work in coffee crops, hospitals that received military victims of antipersonnel mines have been vacated and, now, the top leaders of two armed movements - historical enemies - have joined forces. to ask to be allowed to tell the truth about the Colombian conflict.
Rodrigo Londoño, known as Timochenko in his years in the FARC, and Salvatore Mancuso, the feared paramilitary chief of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), want to be heard and have asked a priest, Father Francisco de Roux. , president of the Truth Commission, created in 2017 within the framework of the Havana agreements.
This week Londoño published a letter in which he is determined to tell what he and Mancuso, detained in a United States jail, know about what happened in the years that Colombia was at war.
“On behalf of myself and Salvatore Mancuso, I have addressed a formal request to Father Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission, so that in a public audience the country can learn the silenced truths about the armed conflict.
Without a doubt, peace and truth will triumph, ”Timochenko announced in the letter published on his social networks on Thursday.
Hours later, Francisco de Roux agreed to listen to them and gave the meeting a day.
On March 19, he will begin to receive his statements.
"We are willing to receive them, of course we are not naive and we know that interests move in these things just as interests move from all sides and that is why we rigorously pose it, taking care of what matters to us: the sovereign search for truth by above all other interests, "De Roux said this Friday in statements to the national media.
“First there are the victims and the absolute respect for them.
We are convinced that what they are raising is very serious and the country has to know beyond small details, the deep network that was behind this conflict, the political and military interests, they have a lot to say to the country ”.
To defuse the attacks of those who are already beginning to question the intentions of the two ex-combatants, the priest also clarified to the press that listening to the ex-guerrilla and the former paramilitary does not aim to improve the image of those involved.
It would be impossible to do so.
Londoño has confessed to his involvement as a former FARC leader in kidnappings, recruitment of minors, and murders.
Mancuso is accused of coordinating more than 100 massacres;
at least 300 people were killed for his actions.
After submitting to the Justice and Peace process with the government of Álvaro Uribe in 2008, Mancuso was extradited to the United States for drug trafficking.
From there he has asked to be allowed to submit to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), but has so far been denied.
His confession, he says, would reveal the links between the economic power and the armed group he led.
His version would make it possible to complete the puzzle of a conflict in which not only armed men participated, but also political leaders and businessmen.
Francisco de Roux has clarified that the Truth Commission, which he leads, is not a judicial apparatus, so believing that they could acquit him from there is unfounded.
"We just want the country to understand what happened, why we were involved in this tragedy that left nine million victims," said de Roux.
In 2008, when he was extradited, Mancuso assured that with his departure from the country the truth about the conflict was also leaving;
Now that he has been willing to speak, his return to Colombia seems key.
“Salvatore Mancuso's testimony could help uncover the truth about hundreds of heinous crimes and guarantee justice for thousands of victims.
But so far the Colombian authorities have done very little to achieve his extradition, and the steps they have taken have been conspicuously negligent, ”denounced José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, last August.
President Iván Duque has said that he opposes Mancuso entering the special jurisdiction for peace (JEP) and has denied that, as the former paramilitary has accused him, his refusal is intended to prevent the State's responsibility in the armed conflict from being known. .
Londoño's letter on behalf of him and Mancuso was preceded by a call from the former guerrilla leader to the former paramilitary chief, after a year - he said - looking for him.
In the conversation, Londoño tells Mancuso that he fears for his life if he returns to the country to tell what he knows, but encourages him to find a space together to speak to Colombia: “Each of us has a little part of the truth of what what happened to us in this conflict and we need that truth, that part that you have and we need the JEP to listen to you and for the Truth Commission to do so as well, ”he insisted in the conversation.
Mancuso tells him that he is willing to participate in the meetings that the Commission determines, but confesses his fear of being assassinated if he returns: “There are people interested in my going to a prison to torture me, murder me, and thus silence me definitively.
My truths have been and continue to be very uncomfortable because they involve the responsibility of the State and people of recognized national connotation, ”he explains, but reiterates his willingness to tell what he knows.
"In the past we were staunch enemies, today I am seeking reconciliation, peace but with truth for the victims," he says.
The country still remembers the phrase he uttered in 2008: "With me they extradited the truth."
On March 19, his testimony and that of Timochenko will be heard.
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