The Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP, closed the door definitively former paramilitary chief Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40for not contributing to the full truth that would demonstrate how he acted with the public forces in the country’s armed conflict.
Thus concluded the Room for the Definition of Legal Situations after listening to Tovar in the Single Audience of Truth on January 26 and 27.
“Both Rodrigo Tovar and his attorneys were warned that the breaches of those who voluntarily appear before the JEP are inadmissible and they were given the necessary guarantees to expose their contribution to the truth.” informed the transitional jurisdiction.
Thus, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo must remain deprived of his liberty in the La Picaleña prison, in Ibagué, while facing hundreds of processes in ordinary justice for the crimes of forced displacement, homicide of a protected person, torture of a protected person, forced disappearance, illegal recruitment, destruction and appropriation of protected assets, among others.
THE AUDIENCES
In the hearings Rodrigo Tovar told about how he joined the AUC, the kidnappings of his family and the way the guerrillas had tired the population on the Caribbean coast, as well as spoke about the massacre of the township of Media Luna, of the municipality of San Diego, occurred in the year 1996, about his meetings with Mancuso, and the war tax imposed by the paramilitary group, among other topics.
But when the magistrates in the proceedings asked questions, Tovar was elusive to give specific names. However, he had the opportunity to narrate events in private with transitional justice.
The decision to reject Tovar’s entry occurred simultaneously with the statements delivered by former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso, who from the first day of the hearing said that he “would tell the truth.”