Colombian police generals aided paramilitaries: ‘Mi Sangre’

Colombian police generals aided paramilitaries: ‘Mi Sangre’
posted by Olle Ohlsen Pettersson
May 22, 2013

A leading Colombian neo-paramilitary currently imprisoned in Argentina says the Colombian police actively supported the rise of illegal paramilitary groups.

“I can say that in Colombia an initiative like that of the appearance of the self-defense forces (paramilitaries) would have been impossible if it was not coordinated with the Public Force. Various times I have said that what is being said about [imprisoned former chief of security during the government of Alvaro Uribe and condemned in the United States on charges of drug trafficking] Mauricio Santoyo is child’s play compared to what I know about other generals. I will not speak about names to not impede my processes and for the security of my family” said Henry de Jesus Lopez Londoño alias “Mi Sangre,” a leading member of the neo-paramilitary organization “Los Urabeños” and a former member of the paramilitary umbrella organization AUC.

As a former member of the AUC in the Medellin region, Mi Sangre was responsible for the formation of urban paramilitary structures in the cities of Bogota and Medellin in the 1990’s and beginning of the 2000’s.

The neo-paramilitary was captured near Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October 2012, and has been in custody in that country ever since. In the interview with conflict-monitoring website Verdad Abierta, Mi Sangre said the Colombian police actively aided the expansion of paramilitary death squads in the 1990’s.

“The police put the zones they had under control at our service, they were permissive with us, they gave us security, they told us about any operation. They were pending of anything that threatened our security…I sat down with people from the (police agencies) GAULA, DIJIN and the SIJIN. Many of them knew me from the Search Bloc in Medellin, when we were pursuing Pablo Escobar.”

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombias-national-police-aided-paramilitaries-mi-sangre/