On Sunday, June 9, the last day of the II Valledupar Book Fair (Felva 2024), León Valencia, Laura Bonilla and Antonio Sanguino presented the book ‘Parapolitics: history of the greatest assault on democracy in Colombia’, which they wrote together with Claudia López, Mauricio Romero, Ariel Ávila and Iván Gallo.
From the House of Culture, the three co-authors explained, based on their research, how the relationship between politicians and paramilitaries undermined the State and the governments of departments such as Cesar, where they mentioned the convicted and different families and surnames that were associated to this phenomenon.
Read: Felva 2024: co-authors León Valencia, Sanguino and Bonilla expose the “resurrection” of parapolitics in their book
INTERVENTION BY ÁLVARO ARAÚJO
At the end of the conversation, in the space that the Felva provided for public participation, the writers were questioned by former Cesarense congressman Álvaro Araújo Castro, sentenced by the Supreme Court of Justice to 9 years in prison for conspiracy to commit a crime, considering that the Former official made an alliance with the Northern Block of the Self-Defense Forces to obtain his seat.
According to Araújo, one of the 86 parliamentarians convicted of parapolitics, he has been a victim of all kinds of “humiliation” and the Supreme Court tried to put him in prison for 60 years for alleged crimes against humanity.
ABOUT YOUR JUDICIAL PROCESS
“They took me to a hearing with five paramilitaries, one of them took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read it: ‘Álvaro Araújo, 50 years old, one meter 76, green eyes, shoes size 42, pants size 34 and said: ‘ This paper was given to me by that magistrate who is there so that I could say that I had given him some uniforms’ and therefore they could increase the sentence to 60 years in prison,” Araújo said.
Read: Supreme Court sentenced Álvaro Araujo Castro to 9 years and 4 months in prison
The paramilitary who would have said that is Gelves Albarracín alias ‘El canoso’, who would have been offered, according to the former congressman’s story, some benefits. “Albarracín said: ‘I may be a bandit, but I’m not an asshole. I don’t have to do this magistrate a favor, if they don’t give me anything, that’s not true.’ That is why I am not sentenced to 60 years,” he added.
“IN CESAR, 3 INNOCENTS WERE CONVICTED”: ARAÚJO
After this context, the former member of Alas Equipo Colombia specified that the objective of his intervention was to question whether the aforementioned book on parapolitics in Colombia “was useful to the country, whether it served to convict the guilty or to convict the innocent.”
And he addressed León Valencia: “Was it possible to promote democracy, strengthen institutions, reveal the truth through journalistic information and books? In my opinion, León, you failed because 3 innocent people were convicted in Cesar: Álvaro Morón, Ricardo Chajín and Álvaro Araújo and the person who appeared in the 17 judicial interceptions of the Prosecutor’s Office, speaking with Rodrigo Tovar, was acquitted… I am also surprised that “In this talk, the topic of the ‘Toga Cartel’ that sold failures has not been touched on once.”
ÁLVARO MORON’S BROTHER
The social communicator Iván Morón also participated in that session, in defense of his brother, the also convicted former congressman Álvaro Morón.
Read: Former congressman Álvaro Morón is granted provisional freedom
“Professor León stated that there were errors for a group of congressmen investigated, indeed there were errors and one of those has to do with my brother Álvaro Morón,” the lawyer also began.
“He resigned when he was elected in 2006 due to a process that was initiated in 2002 when he was not elected, he was convicted in 2002 when he was not even elected and he provided evidence of this, of having demanded the 2002 elections because there was pressure military in the department of Cesar and the Council of State did not succeed in his lawsuit,” he added.
SOME TESTS
Another piece of evidence, according to Morón, was a testimony from the Ochoa brothers, “who were one of the key protagonists of the Supreme Court, where they stated that at no time were they certain that Álvaro Morón had participated in paramilitary groups, at that time order of ideas Álvaro Morón was forced to resign from the seat to become head of his investigation, to defend himself.”
According to the communicator, the ordinary jurisdiction did not evaluate the evidence. “Even the substitute of the MRL where the Ochoas were stated that there was never any paramilitary participation by Álvaro Morón…, and here is one of the exceptional witnesses that the parapolitics had in Cesar, Cristian Moreno Panezo, and he gave his testimony before the Court and that evidence was not valued.”
Morón reiterated that his brother nor any member of his family has participated in corruption, but added that they have lived with sadness for what he considers an “injustice.”
By General Editorial.
