The son of a bloodthirsty paramilitary leader will sit in Congress in Colombia where he will represent the victims of the conflict, we learned Monday, March 14 from an official source, after the legislative elections held the day before.
Colombians voted on Sunday to renew the 296 members of the Senate and the Lower House of Representatives, a vote won by the leftist opposition.
Read alsoColombia struggles to heal the wounds of 50 years of civil war with the Farc
New to these legislative elections, the victims of the conflict with the former Marxist FARC guerrillas (which laid down their arms with the 2016 peace agreement) have their own representatives in Parliament, with 16 seats specially reserved for them. next two legislatures (until 2030) in the hardest hit regions.
The violence affecting these regions, which has increased in recent years due to the presence of armed groups linked to drug trafficking, fueled suspicions of corruption during the campaign, candidates in these constituencies being more likely than elsewhere to be threatened, bought off, or subjected to various pressures.
Read alsoColombia: Farc take up arms
Jorge Tovar, the son of the infamous paramilitary leader nicknamed “Jorge 40”, was elected in one of these peace constituencies in the north of the country.
A lawyer by training who calls himself
"specialized in the defense of human rights"
, he celebrated his victory on Twitter in these terms:
"The time has come to change history"
.
His father was the leader of the northern bloc of far-right paramilitaries who sowed terror in the region during the 1990s as they fought, often in complicity with the army, against far-left guerrillas.
He returned to Bogota in 2020 after serving a prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.
Living in freedom, he still faces dozens of trials for massacres and population displacements.
Read alsoColombia: historic progress of the left in the legislative elections
His son's election drew strong criticism, especially from victims' organizations, such as the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, which lamented that
"corruption and paramilitarism have taken hold"
of the region, and echoed allegations of vote-buying for Mr. Tovar.
"The son of Jorge 40 is now the representative of the victims left by his father
," lamented left-wing senator Gustavo Bolivar.
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