The ruling, issued by the Justice and Peace Chamber of Barranquilla, in the Caribbean area, also charged 45 other ex-members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) for committing more than 500 homicides, 55 disappearances and at least 700 forced displacements in the Colombian region of Norte de Santander.

“The different armed structures of the Catatumbo Block, under the orders of the top leaders, adopted macro-criminality patterns that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as massacres, selective homicides, forced disappearances, displacements, kidnappings, threats and violent sexual intercourse,” the Prosecutor’s Office indicated.

Despite the sentence, Mancuso will not be deprived of his freedom because he has already served eight years of prison agreed under the benefits of the Law of Justice and Peace, during the government of former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010).

Instead, he must offer material compensation to victims and families and request forgiveness, which amounts to paying fines of up to five thousand current legal monthly minimum wages.

Mancuso was appointed as a peace broker by the current president Gustavo Petro, to help uncover the links between the power elites and paramilitarism at the end of the last century and the beginning of the 21th century.

The former paramilitary leader was imprisoned for almost 20 years, first in Colombia and then in the United States, to where he was extradited to serve a sentence for drug trafficking.

He returned to his native country in February of this year.

ied/jha/ifs