On January 26 and 27, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, former commander of the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), will have the last opportunity to be accepted before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in a public hearing. developed in Ibagué (Tolima), where it must provide detailed information on the alliances established between the criminal organization and some Divisions of the National Army.
The former paramilitary commander, who is being held in the Tolima capital in the La Picaleña prison, is guilty of several crimes committed in the northern region of the country, for which relatives of the victims want to know the absolute truth.
One of them is Carlos Morelli, brother of the dean of the University of Magdalena, Roque Alfonso Morelli Zárate, murdered on September 5, 2002.
Carlos Morelli mentioned to Blu Radio that it is time for the ex-commander of the self-defense groups to reveal who the masterminds of the homicide that shook the educational community of Magdalena two decades ago were.
“This man hides a great truth and it is essential that the whole truth be unraveled for the benefit of the victim’s family members. It is more than 20 years that we have been waiting for justice from the Prosecutor’s Office, the Court and the JEP, it is more than enough time for the true intellectual actors to be pointed out.
Another of the victims’ relatives who pointed out the need for the truth was the mother of Irina del Carmen Villero, a 15-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a group of paramilitaries from the Northern Bloc in May 2001 in The Guajira.
Blanca Nubia Díaz told the station: “I agree that he should be part of this process because he is a man who has not been present anywhere for his crimes, I am going to forgive him, but he has to tell me why he did it. did, what did he do to my daughter”.
Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, will have to provide exclusive information to the Peace Court in order for it to accept his submission request and thus receive the benefits of the special jurisdiction. The former commander of the Northern Bloc of the Self-Defense Forces would have valuable information on the various joint actions that took place between the paramilitaries and the State Forces in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It should be remembered that a message from the defense of Tovar Pupo arrived at the transitional court of justice, in which he asked to postpone the single full truth hearing against the former paramilitary commander scheduled for January 26 and 27, 2023. However, the court He denied that request arguing that that summons.
Said request for postponement was presented to the transitional court of justice on December 6. In it, the former paramilitary commander’s lawyer asked to change the dates under the pretext that he has not been able to meet with his attorney in person; However, it was noteworthy that he only communicated these inconveniences when he was summoned to the hearings and not just at the moment he presented the problems to meet him.
In this regard, the JEP affirmed that the convicted paramilitary breached the conditionalities regime “with a medium intensity”, because on the one hand, he withheld his contributions to the truth on two occasions and later demonstrated that “he tries to postpone the administration of justice at his convenience , as it has done before in other judicial forums”.
He also argued that the defense has had enough time to meet with Tovar, since on September 13 it was notified to prepare the questionnaire. with Infobae