The Single Truth Hearing, to which former paramilitary chief Rodrigo Tovar ”Jorge 40” will appear, will be held publicly and will be broadcast live throughout the country. The procedure will be the last one for Tovar Pupo to confess to his participation in crimes and to expose his allies and those of the Northern Bloc of the AUC, at all levels.
The procedure remains firm for the next 26 and 27 January, for which the magistrates headed by Judge Sandra Jeannette Castro will travel to Ibagué, the city where Tovar Pupo is being held.
Chronology of Rodrigo Tovar Pupo
Alias ”Jorge 40” was born on November 19, 1960 in Valledupar, a city in northern Colombia, known as the capital of vallenato music, he is a former commander of the AUC, which operated mainly in the departments of Cesar, Magdalena, La Guajira, Atlántico and Santander and that it is responsible for murders, massacres and kidnappings in those departments over the course of 12 years.
While he was subject to the Justice and Peace process, he confessed to around 600 crimes or acts of violence, although he assured that he participated in more than 3,500 receiving orders from superiors.
In March 2006, he abandoned military service along with a thousand of his men as part of the process of demobilization of paramilitaries in Colombia. On May 13, 2008, he was extradited to the United States for the crime of drug trafficking and served a sentence in that country until 2020, and then he was deported to Colombia where he is accountable for the crimes committed.
Adhesion to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
His foray into the criminal group began in 1996 when he was trafficking weapons for paramilitary groups. In 1999, the paramilitary Salvatore Mancuso offered him command of the Northern Bloc of the AUC. In 2000 he entered the war with fellow paramilitary chief Hernán Giraldo, for control of the ports of Magdalena and La Guajira.
Some of the crimes he led were: the assassination of 7 officials of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation in 1999, the Nueva Venecia massacre in Sitionuevo, Magdalena: 40 dead in 2000, the El Salado, Bolívar massacre in 2000, the murder of members of the University of Magdalena in 2000, the assassination of trade unionists from the North American multinational Drummond in 2001, the massacre of Bahía Portete, La Guajira in 2004. Currently there are 1,486 ongoing investigations for murders, massacres and forced displacement.
His son’s foray into the political scene
Jorge Rodrigo Tovar Vélez is currently a representative to the Chamber for the special transitory constituency for peace number 12. “Yoyo” Tovar, as he is known, had obtained 35,133 votes, with 58.74% of the total polling stations, according to the data of the National Registry.
The candidate obtained the majority of votes in Valledupar with 14,222 voters and was consolidated at the head of election day in territorial spaces such as: Fundación, Aracataca, Dibulla, Fonseca, Pueblo Bellos and San Juan del Cesar, a total of seven of the 13 municipalities that make up this constituency.
Admission to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace
In December 2022, the Situation Definition Chamber of the JEP summoned the paramilitary Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias ”Jorge 40”, to appear in a public hearing to provide truth, the body mentioned that it would be the only opportunity for the former militant to deliver a contribution to the truth and defined that the diligence would be completed between January 26 and 27, 2023. With Infobae