:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/HVGZU5CLYZFCJDVFBJFVI5EJII.png "Roy Barreras responds to Salvatore Mancuso: ‘What the paramilitaries wanted was drug trafficking’")
On March 9, a letter was published that former paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso sent to President Gustavo Petro in which, among other things, he makes some reflections on total peace and asks that post-paramilitary organizations and dissidents, as well that the ELN be recognized. as politico-military organizations.
Congressman and Historic Pact Senator Roy Barreras sent a message to Mancuso telling him that “the paramilitaries have not organized any revolution against the state, but a process of appropriation of lands and resources”.
Senator Barreras also warned that on March 10 the former paramilitary leader would have a technical and legal response to his letter, but he gave some glimpses of where the letter might go.
“Transitional justice is for the insurgents, for the paramilitaries it is Justice and Peace and for common criminals it is ordinary criminal justice. These lines are the only ones that allow it not to be deformed and mixed in a splatter with poison apples, ”said the president of Congress, quoted in snail radio.
Barreras insisted that the nature of paramilitary groups has never been social struggle or revolution against the state, but rather the appropriation of land, resources and drug trafficking.
“This letter is a kind of denial of the state, because the letter assumes that the state has completely failed to control the territory and that since they have control of the territory, then they are political topics. No, the paramilitaries did not organize a revolution against the state, but rather a process of appropriation of land and resources“, he added.
The senator pointed out that after the peace process between the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, of which Mancuso was the protagonist, in the phenomenon of the resurgence of paramilitary groups “there is no social struggle”, pointing out that the main cause is drug trafficking and control of this company:
“It’s not about replacing the state or to govern for the poorest, What the paramilitaries wanted was territorial control and drug trafficking, but the law of the benefits which is going to be treated will give them the opportunity toand reintegrate into society and have a peaceful life for themselves and give back to Colombia the possibility of total peace”.
In the document, Mancuso also pointed out that he had objections to the statements that were made about the differences that the national government in the agreement between guerrilla dissidents there paramilitary dissidentswhich is why he asked that in both cases, regardless of the ideological basis, they be treated as political actors.
He also said that a review of the submission law should be done, he mentioned his criticism of Danilo RuedaHigh Commissioner for Peace, and asked that what happened to the AUC with the government of Alvaro Uribe Velez.
In this sense, the former paramilitary leader warned that the armed groups and their practices in the territory are not very different, since they share several characteristics:
“Neither the post-paramilitary organizations are just a group of bandits, nor the dissidents, including the ELN, political-military organizations as they were called in the past. All have political, territorial control, all supplant the state in certain territories of the country, all exercise social and political control and all, without exception, are financed by drug trafficking.
Regarding the above, he mentioned that ignoring this reality is a factor that could increase violence and, once again, hinder the demobilization of paramilitary groups, since from his point of view, the law of submission does not fact that offering them: “extradition and death”why he mentions the importance of equal treatment that all armed actors should receive and says that if not, it will be: “Chronicle of a failed peace”.