The Colombian Foreign Minister refers to 'Jesús Santrich' as ​​a "guerrilla trapped and murdered"

MADRID, 25 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Álvaro Leyva, has referred to Seuxis Pausias Hernández, alias 'Jesús Santrich', as a "guerrilla trapped and murdered", in accordance with the conclusions of the Truth Commission in which it is noted that the former leader of the now-dissolved FARC was "induced" by the United States and the previous Colombian government to leave the peace accords.

Leyva made these statements in the delivery of the Truth Commission report to the Spanish Government delegation headed by the president, Pedro Sánchez, referring to the time he spent with 'Jesús Santrich' during the creation of the Special Jurisdiction for Paz (JEP), tells the RCN station.

"In terms of truth, some principles were written about the truth commission and I did not do it alone, I was accompanied by a trapped and murdered guerrilla, 'Jesús Santrich,'" said Leyva, recalling that his participation in the peace process was as an independent because he did not represent the government of that time or the now defunct FARC guerrilla.

In one of the chapters of the report entitled 'The obstacles to the continuity of the peace processes in Colombia', this commission maintains that 'Jesús Santrich' was "induced" by the United States Anti-Drug Agency (DEA) and the Colombian Prosecutor's Office to committing crimes and thus leaving the peace agreements, as he did in 2019 together with other guerrillas to form the 'Second Marquetalia' dissidence.

The objective was to exploit the differences between the now General Secretary of the Comunes, Rodrigo Londoño, alias 'Timochenko', and Luciano Marín Arango, alias 'Iván Márquez', on how the peace agreements reached with the government of Juan Manuel Santos in Havana.

When he was a deputy in the House of Representatives, "Jesús Santrich" was arrested in April 2018 for drug trafficking crimes, although he was released a month later. However, in August he announced, together with other guerrilla leaders, that he was returning to the path of arms.

That arrest "unleashed a new cycle of violence and put the implementation of the peace agreement at risk. At the same time, it pushed hundreds of former guerrillas to return to arms and sent the message to the public that the peace agreement had failed." .

The Commission explains the legal repercussions that the arrest of 'Jesús Santrich' had for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the court that emerged from the agreements to investigate those who participated in the conflict, while showing some transcripts of some telephone calls from the then attorney general, Néstor Humberto Martínez, authorizing the use of cocaine to carry out a setup that would lead to the arrest of the former guerrilla.

On this subject, Martínez sent a letter to the president of this commission, Father Francisco De Roux, asking for clarification on this report, as well as the possibility of establishing a "court of honor" to clarify the facts.

Martínez explains in that letter that Colombia has the right to know "once and for all, who is right and if the cocaine negotiated, which gave rise to the extradition request for 'Santrich', came from the Prosecutor's Office or not." .