Colombian Warlord Responsible for Thousands of Murders Extradited After Serving Sentence in US

Salvatore Mancuso, a Colombian warlord, was sent to Colombia on Tuesday following his conviction for drug trafficking in the United States and being denied several requests to be sent to Italy, where he also has citizenship.

Mancuso arrived at El Dorado Airport in Bogota on a charter airplane that was also carrying dozens of Colombians who had crossed the southern border illegally and were deported from the US.

Mancuso Sent To Colombia

According to The Guardian, Mancuso was quickly taken into police custody, donning a green helmet and a bulletproof jacket.

Human rights organizations and government officials in Colombia hope that Mancuso will work with the legal system to disclose details about hundreds of crimes committed in rural Colombia in the 1990s and early 2000s when paramilitary groups fought leftist insurgents.

"This event marks an important step towards reconciliation and the construction of a lasting peace in Colombia," Fernando García, the director of Colombia's national immigration service, said.

Mancuso was a prominent figure in the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, a paramilitary organization established by cattle ranchers that engaged in combat with leftist rebels during one of the most violent phases of the country's decades-long armed conflict.

He admitted to taking part in several horrifying crimes while imprisoned in Colombia. He will attempt to use the transitional justice system established by the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia to get a reduced sentence and possibly even get out of prison.

Furthermore, Mancuso is expected to provide light on hundreds of killings and forced disappearances committed by paramilitary fighters, including extrajudicial killings in which victims were buried in mass graves.

During Mancuso's detention in the US, he attended several teleconference hearings with Colombian courts where he discussed his dealings with politicians and the potential involvement of high-ranking politicians in war crimes.

However, investigations slowed down in 2008 when he was extradited to the US. José Meléndez, a human rights lawyer who defends war victims in northern Colombia, said that when Mancuso was extradited, the truth was deported, as well as justice and reparations for victims.

He claimed that they welcomed him and wanted him to tell the truth about the multinational companies, the businessmen, and the government ministers who helped with the creation of paramilitary groups.

(Photo: GERARDO GOMEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Salvatore Mancuso, demobilized leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), paramilitary guerrillas, answers questions from the press in his cell at the high-security jail 30 March 2007, in Itagui, department of Antioquia, Colombia.

Mancuso was a Powerful Military Leader in Colombia

Mancuso was a successful cattle rancher born into a wealthy family in the northwest Colombian state of Cordoba.

In the early 1990s, he started working with the Colombian army as rebel groups threatened his family and demanded extortion payments.

He quickly transitioned from providing intel to the military to leading operations against leftist insurgents. By the late 90s, he had become one of the most powerful paramilitary leaders in Colombia.

Furthermore, he joined a 2003 peace process that resulted in the demobilization of paramilitary leaders in exchange for a shorter sentence.

However, he was extradited to the US five years later during President álvaro Uribe's government, along with thirteen other paramilitary leaders who were wanted for drug trafficking in the US.