International

Ex-paramilitary Salvatore Mancuso: “I got out of prison with a sentence served; I don’t owe anything to Justice”

The former head of the paramilitary United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC) Salvatore Mancuso, who left the La Picota prison in Bogotá on Wednesday, assured on Thursday that he owes nothing to Justice, despite the trials for the thousands of crimes committed by that group during the armed conflict, and said that he has already served his sentence.

“I was released from prison with the sentence served,” Mancuso said at a press conference in which he insisted: “I don’t owe anything to Colombian justice or any country in the world.”

Mancuso received the release order and left La Picota on Wednesday, where he had been detained since he arrived in Colombia last February after being deported from the United States where he served a sentence of 15 years and 10 months for drug trafficking.

However, since he arrived deported to Colombia on February 27, his status is in doubt, since there are several justices – the ordinary, Justice and Peace (created after the demobilization of the AUC) and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (created with the peace agreement with the FARC) – that debate who should deal with the ex-paramilitary.

Finally, on Wednesday Justicia y Paz gave the green light for his release and the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec), after sending 31 letters to several judicial offices to find out if there were security measures against him, also gave viability to the release of the ex-paramilitary.

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Therefore, Mancuso added that now that he has “recovered freedom” the “peace management” entrusted to him by the Government of President Gustavo Petro will begin and today he is going to meet with the commissioner of the peace adviser, Otty Patiño, “to be able to program and organize everything that has to do with the agenda that I must develop in the country.”

The AUC is the group to which the most homicides are attributed during the Colombian conflict, war crimes for which Mancuso has not yet been tried, since the penalty paid in the United States is for drug trafficking.

However, the Government considers that as a “peace manager” it can help repair some of those wounds and, for example, help in the recovery of bodies of disappeared by paramilitaries in both Colombia and Venezuela.

“I want to tell the victims of the violence of the armed conflict, for which I am responsible, that there is no justification for the immense pain and suffering that we cause them, the atrocities committed,” Mancuso said.

And he continued: “My return to Colombia will not heal those wounds, there are pains that are irreparable, but I will do everything in my power to help heal those wounds.”

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In addition, Mancuso assured that he will not act driven by revenge or retaliation, making an apparent indirect allusion to former President Álvaro Uribe, who is said to be his former “ally” and who later signed his extradition to the United States.

“For tricks of some, I was deprived of liberty much longer than it should be,” said Mancuso, who criticized that he was deprived of liberty for 17 years and 11 months in the United States and that he did not leave before “because there were pressures.”

Uribe was the one who negotiated the demobilization of the AUC, which have been accused on numerous occasions of working in alliance with the State forces to fight the guerrillas.

But today, the former paramilitary head called on him to be “allies” again to work for the peace of the country.

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International

Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra dies in campaign road accident

Presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, representing the Partido de los Trabajadores y Emprendedores (PTE) in Peru, died in a traffic accident while traveling to a campaign event, local authorities confirmed Sunday.

Becerra, who also served as president of the centrist political party, ranked among the lowest in opinion polls in a crowded field of more than 30 candidates competing in the presidential election scheduled for April 12.

Recent surveys place Rafael López Aliaga at the top of voter preferences.

The accident occurred near the town of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, when the vehicle carrying the candidate overturned for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The candidate Becerra has died,” Balvin Huamani, mayor of the district of Pilpichaca, told RPP radio.

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According to Huamani, he personally transported the 61-year-old candidate to a local health center, where doctors confirmed his death.

The Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) expressed condolences over Becerra’s passing and wished a speedy recovery to the three people who were traveling with him and were injured in the crash.

International

Noboa intensifies anti-cartel crackdown as violence persists in Ecuador

A close ally of Washington, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a hardline security strategy against cocaine cartels for more than two years, yet homicide, disappearance and extortion rates remain high across the country.

Between Sunday night and the morning of March 31, Ecuador’s armed forces will launch a “very strong offensive” with “advisory support” from the United States, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced Tuesday.

The government has kept details of the operation confidential and has not confirmed whether U.S. troops will be deployed on Ecuadorian soil, as has occurred at times during Noboa’s administration.

As part of the security measures, residents in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro will be subject to a nightly curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for the next two weeks.

“We are in a war,” Reimberg said, urging citizens to remain indoors. “Do not take risks. Stay home and allow the security forces and our allies to do the work that must be done.”

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Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major departure point for drugs heading to the United States. Meanwhile, the violence associated with trafficking has increasingly affected the local population.

Bordering the world’s largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has gone from being considered a relatively peaceful country to recording one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—52 killings per 100,000 inhabitants—according to the **Observatory of Organized Crime.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.