After the exclusive interview of The Coronell Report with Salvatore Mancuso, who assured that Abelardo de la Espriella, In addition to being his friend, he was very close to former prosecutor Mario Iguarán, whose election would have been supported by former paramilitary leaders following instructions from former president Álvaro Uribe. the lawyer passed through the microphones of Porque La W.
“Salvatore Mancuso is not referring to me in the commission of any crime (…) I have never committed an illegal act, neither with Mr. Mancuso nor with anyone,” de la Espriella assured.
The lawyer assured that his closeness with Mancuso occurred in the place where he spent his childhood.
“I to Mancuso I saw him riding a motorcycle in the neighborhood where we grew up when he was over 20 years old and I was 10, because he is 16 years older than me, we didn’t have the opportunity to be so close. because age did not allow it (…) He was a reference for us in the neighborhood because the guy rode the motorcycle well. I saw Mancuso again at the ‘ralito’ table negotiating with the government, because I was a member of the accompanying civil society. I never saw him illegally in his life. “I saw it in my childhood,” he said.
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Abelardo De La Espriella assured that he met again with Salvatore Mancuso at the negotiation table between the government and self-defense.
“I only saw Mancuso again in ‘ralito’, negotiating peace, and I saw him committed more than any commander. I met the other AUC commanders while negotiating with the government, I have never sat illegally with any of them in my life.“I could have done it because I am a lawyer and I practiced criminal law 23 years ago, I could have met with anyone and I would not have had a problem, as long as there were no illegal activities,” he expressed.
In the ‘ralito’ peace process, Abelardo de la Espriella appears in photographs next to Salvstore Mancusoas president of the Fipaz Foundation.
According to complaints before the Prosecutor’s Office, this Foundation would have been the beneficiary of financial contributions from a common fund of the former paramilitary leaders, according to the accounting kept by Jairo Andrés Angarita, alias ‘Commander Andrés’.
Regarding this question, Mancuso confirmed that the former leaders of the AUC yes they made a common fund, but he did not know if the foundation chaired by Abelardo De La Espriella received money from there, since this was handled by alias ‘Ernesto Báez’.
On the subject, this is what the lawyer said in dialogue with Follow La W: “All this is in a process from 2009 – 2010, as a result of Coronell’s columns and a series of pressures from who is today Minister of the Defense, Iván Velásquez, and they opened a process for me for that (…) It is in the process how they paid for the forum that was held, they paid for the forum with the permission of the government, what we did was a public forum, everything was public, I called the press, that is not “It was illegal,” he asserted.
