Jailed Medellin mafia bosses say they conspired with mayors since 2002 – Colombia News

Representatives of Medellin’s gangs said Tuesday that they helped municipal authorities to artificially lower homicide statistics since 2002.

In an interview with public television network RTVC, jailed former mafia bosses “Carlos Pesebre” and “Douglas” rejected Mayor Federico Gutierrez’s opposition to the peace process between the national government and organized crime group “La Oficina.”

“What we don’t understand as bosses of the structures is why it is bad to talk peace with the government now if before, when Federico was mayor for the first time, we also talked to them,” said Carlos Pesebre, who used to control Medellin’s gangs in the west of the city.

Why are they shouting fire when we take part in a public event in the Alpujarra [district], but they said nothing when we entered through the basement? I was in the mayor’s office multiple times during multiple mayors’ terms.

Carlos Pesebre

Pesebre added that “it wasn’t just with Fico’s administration, but also with other administrations.”

“Publicly they deny it, but privately they look for us in elections or when they’re a problem with the public order,” said the jailed Oficina boss.

Douglas, a legendary former boss of the gang “La Terraza,” called on Gutierrez and other Medellin politicians “to help us with peace like we many times have supported them.”

“We helped Federico in 2016. In fact, one of the deals the man had with us was appointing Gustavo Villegas as government secretary, because he was the person we were closest to” Douglas told RTVC.

“We contributed with people, we put up the votes. We took the people so they could cast their ballots,” said the former La Terraza boss.

Villegas was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to prison because of his ties to La Oficina, which helped the local government fabricate crime statistics that were beneficial for the mayor.

According to Douglas, La Oficina has “always” had ties to local authorities.

“It was with them we had to have meetings in apartments, in farm houses, in places where there was no public. We did it all in private,” said Douglas.

The former boss of La Terraza even claimed that “I got there” at the Mayor’s Office, “and I sat down in the mayor’s chair to look at Medellin through those big windows, because that office is very beautiful.”