Fifteen of Colombia’s principal paramilitary chiefs have been extradited to your country for the crimes of drug trafficking, financing terrorist groups, and money laundering. These leaders of the organization called the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia have committed thousands of crimes against humanity. Nonetheless, the perpetration of these grave and massive crimes was not their exclusive responsibility. These persons also acted in the service of politicians, large landowners, or high-ranking military officers. They even committed human rights violations in alliance with such multinationals as Chiquita Brands, as has been proven in court.

25 May 2008, Bogotá D.C. Colombia
–

Dear

Michael Mukasey

Attorney General of the United States
–

Greetings from the National Victim’s Movement.

Fifteen of Colombia’s principal paramilitary chiefs have been extradited to your country for the crimes of drug trafficking, financing terrorist groups, and money laundering. These leaders of the organization called the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia have committed thousands of crimes against humanity. So as to illustrate their background, we will mention just one figure: over the last two decades, these persons led the execution of more than 3,500 collective murders or massacres. In other words, some of the extradited persons have ordered to forcibly disappear or murder more persons than were under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet of Chile. Nonetheless, the perpetration of these grave and massive crimes was not their exclusive responsibility. These persons also acted in the service of politicians, large landowners, or high-ranking military officers. They even committed human rights violations in alliance with such multinationals as Chiquita Brands, as has been proven in court. Presently, more than 160 public servants, including many congress members belonging to the coalition of parties supporting president Álvaro Uribe, are being investigated for these criminal ties.

As you would understand, the victims of these paramilitaries and their powerful allies yearn for justice. Beyond any indemnity or economic reparation, their principal desire is to know the full truth of these acts of violence, their motives, and the identity of the complicit politicians who currently hold senior government positions, which grant them impunity. Thousands of Colombians wait for information to allow them to give a dignified burial of the remains of their family members, who have been tortured and disappeared.

The paramilitary chiefs Salvatore Mancuso and Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, have publicly expressed their willingness to appear in court -as soon as possible- with Colombian investigators in US territory in order to make statements that may be essential for continuing the process to clarify the truth. However, we have learned that, in the meeting held in Washington between yourself and Attorney General Mario Iguarán, it was confirmed these statements would not be made until the preliminary agreement process has concluded between US judicial authorities and the defendants. This could mean the victims would have to wait a long time, and that the first hearings would not be held in months or years.

On behalf of the victims, and their tight to the truth, we ask you to authorize -as soon as possible- a visit by a commission of Colombian prosecutors and victims and their lawyers so these paramilitary chiefs may -at the earliest convenience- confess to new acts and, in particular, provide the names of their accomplices, who in reality are the intellectual authors of these massive crimes. It would be incomprehensible that judicial agreements in United States end up denying the right to truth and justice of the victims of crimes universally condemned by humanity.

Sincerely,

National Movement of Victims of State Crimes