At the request of the Attorney General’s Office, a guarantee control judge imposed a security measure in a prison on Luis Miguel Mena Palacios, alias Julio, a possible member of the Resistencia Cimarrón front of the ELN accused of participating in the kidnapping of Tulio Mosquera Asprilla, former mayor and candidate for mayor of Alto Baudó (Chocó).
Tulio Mosquera was kidnapped on August 24, 2019, in the company of 12 other people who accompanied him. The delegation was released six days later, while the former president and then political candidate remained in the hands of the illegal armed group for two years and died in captivity at the end of October 2021.
Alias Julio would have been in charge of permanently verifying the conditions in which Mosquera Asprilla remained; transmit the messages of the ringleaders about food, transfers and measures to prevent him from being rescued; and alert about the movements of the public forces in the vicinity of the area where he was being held captive.
For these facts, a prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Criminal Organizations charged this man with the crimes of conspiracy to commit an aggravated crime and kidnapping for extortion. The charges were not accepted by the defendant, who will be transferred to the Anayansi Penitentiary Center, in Quibdó (Chocó).
According to the evidence, Luis Miguel Mena Palacios was linked to the ELN as a minor.
Currently, he was serving in the military in the 12th Infantry Battalion of the Alfonso Manosalva Flórez Brigade of the National Army. At the military headquarters he was captured by CTI investigators from the Prosecutor’s Office.