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A Colombian court on Monday sentenced former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso to 40 years in prison for crimes committed against indigenous communities in La Guajira province between 2002 and 2006, including killings, enforced disappearances and displacement.
The special court that hears cases of the country’s armed conflict said in its ruling that Mancuso was responsible for 117 crimes committed by fighters under his command in La Guajira. However, it added that Mancuso’s sentence could be reduced to eight years if he cooperates with truth and reparations campaigns that benefit his former paramilitary victims.
Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict has led to numerous peace negotiations between the government and guerrillas and armed groups, including a 2016 peace deal with the largest guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Mancuso, 61, was deported to Colombia in 2024 after serving a lengthy sentence in prison. united Drug trafficking state. The former paramilitary leader also served as Italian Multiple requests were sent to Citizenship but all were rejected Italy He was extradited to the United States in 2008 after serving his sentence in the United States.
In the late 1990s, Mancuso was one of the commanders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group formed to protect landowners from attacks by Marxist rebels, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
According to a report released by the truth commission in 2022, at least 450,000 people were killed in Colombia’s armed conflict between 1985 and 2018, including civilians, rebel fighters, soldiers and members of paramilitary groups.
Mancuso’s group, the AUC, successfully drove the rebels out of some rural areas but was accused of killing hundreds of innocent villagers.
In 2003, the AUC began disarmament after reaching an agreement with the Colombian government to commute the sentences of its leaders. But the paramilitary group was succeeded by a second generation of right-wing militias who continue to operate in Colombia, including the Gulf Clan, which has about 10,000 fighters.
Mancuso was released from a U.S. prison in February 2024 and deported to Colombia, where he was held for several months. He was released in July after various courts ruled that he had no pending prison sentence.
When Mancuso was deported back to Colombia, Colombian President Gustavo Petro appointed him “peace mediator,” a title that enabled him to act as a mediator in negotiations with armed groups.
The Colombian government is currently in peace talks with Gulf tribes.
In December, the two parties signed an agreement Qatar Under the agreement, the group’s militants will gather in specially designated camps and will be immune from government prosecution as negotiations between the two sides continue.