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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Luke Taylor in Bogotá

HISTORICAL FACTS: Colombian elite backed death squads former paramilitary commander says - Caught on Camera

Colombian soldier provides security during a tribute for victims killed in the old crematorium ovens of Juan Frio, Norte de Santander, Colombia.
Colombian soldier provides security during a tribute for victims killed in the old crematorium ovens of Juan Frio, Norte de Santander, Colombia. Photograph: Mario Caicedo/EPA

A notorious former commander of Colombia’s largest paramilitary group has revealed new details of how rightwing death squads worked side by side with the country’s business, military and political elite to sow terror in the countryside and wipe out leftwing insurgencies.

Salvatore Mancuso told Colombia’s peace tribunal this week that state institutions were not only complicit in the expansion of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) but actively coordinated with them, giving orders to wipe out anyone suspected of aligning with communist rebels.

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