A Colombian court has sentenced Salvatore Mancuso, a former leader of the AUC paramilitary faction, to 40 years in prison for crimes committed against Indigenous communities in the province of La Guajira. The special tribunal found Mancuso responsible for 117 offences, including homicides, forced disappearances and the displacement of people, carried out by fighters under his command between 2002 and 2006.
However, the court added that Mancuso’s sentence could be reduced to eight years if he collaborates with truth and reparation activities that benefit the victims of his former paramilitary group. Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict has led to several peace negotiations between the government and guerrilla and armed groups, including a 2016 peace deal with the FARC, the largest guerrilla group.
Mancuso, 61, was repatriated to Colombia in 2024 after serving a lengthy prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking. The former paramilitary leader, who also holds Italian citizenship, was denied several requests to be sent to Italy after completing his sentence in the US, where he had been extradited in 2008.
In the late 1990s, Mancuso was one of the commanders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary faction that worked with drug traffickers and the country’s business, military and political elite to sow terror and wipe out left-wing insurgencies. At least 450,000 people were killed in Colombia’s armed conflict between 1985 and 2018, according to a report published by a truth commission in 2022, including civilians, rebel fighters, soldiers and members of paramilitary groups.
Mancuso’s group pushed the rebels out of some rural areas, but was accused of killing hundreds of innocent villagers. The AUC began to disarm in 2003 after an agreement with the Colombian government that provided reduced sentences to its leaders. However, the paramilitary group was succeeded by a second generation of right-wing militias that continue to operate in Colombia, including the Gulf Clan, a group with approximately 10,000 fighters.
Mancuso was freed from US prison in February 2024 and deported to Colombia, where he remained in custody for several months. He was released in July after various courts determined there were no prison sentences pending against him. When he was repatriated to Colombia, Mancuso was named a “peace facilitator” by Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, a designation that enables him to act as a mediator in talks with armed groups. The Colombian government is currently engaged in peace talks with the Gulf Clan, which the US designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in December.
