Key witness in Uribe trial exposes alleged paramilitary ties

One of the two key witnesses in the trial against Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe told a Bogota court about their ties to paramilitary group AUC.

The key witness. Juan Guillermo Monsalve, also told the court that he suffered one knife attack and an attempted poisoning since exposing Uribe’s ties to the AUC’s “Bloque Metro” in 2011.

Monsalve was supposed to testify on Tuesday, but this hearing was postponed after he suffered an alleged assault by prison guards on Monday.

Monsalve and Bloque Metro

Monsalve said that he was introduced to the armed group that would become the Bloque Metro at Guacharacas, the Uribe family estate in southwest Antioquia, in late 1996.

According to Monsalve, paramilitary group ACCU sent a commander called “Beto” and “25 or 30” fighters to Guacharacas to protect the Uribe estate from the ELN.

Monsalve, who had lived on the estate since he was eight years old, joined this group while Uribe was governor of the Antioquia province.

As governor, Uribe signed off on the creation of private security firm El Condor of his neighbor, Luis Alberto Villegas, on November 18, 1996 and took part in the official inauguration of the group.

Villegas was the “boss” of Beto and the paramilitaries that immediately began terrorizing the region, according to Monsalve.

Uribe’s brother Santiago regularly met with Villegas and drug trafficker Santiago Gallon, Monsalve testified.

In “late 1997 or 1998,” the arrival of commander “Rodrigo Doble Cero,” a former army captain, marked the beginning of the Bloque Metro and its campaign to assume control over Antioquia.

While Doble Cero embarked on the expansion of his paramilitary group, Villegas took charge of stealing petrol from a pipeline that traversed Guacharacas and selling this to regional petrol stations.

Monsalve said that he was helped produce cocaine labs of former Medellin Cartel drug trafficker Santiago Gallon on the Uribe estate.

Uribe’s brother Santiago frequently visited Guacharacas to meet with Villegas and Gallon, testified Monsalve.

The jailed former Bloque Metro knew that the former president was involved in his paramilitary group because “we were opening the estate that was his” and Uribe sent military forces to Guacharaca after ELN guerrillas detained Monsalve and other members of his group.

Villegas called Uribe and told him that the security we had was not enough, so they sent, I don’t know, the helicopter came with troops about four times.

Juan Guillermo Monsalve

Monsalve also testified that the Bloque Metro actively campaigned for Uribe during the successful 2002 presidential campaign.

At one point, Villegas ordered Monsalve to erase the Bloque Metro graffiti’s that said “AUC Alvaro Uribe for president” because “they were causing trouble.”

Monsalve said that he abandoned Doble Cero and joined paramilitary leader “Julian Bolivar” in 2003 after the Bloque Metro abandoned peace talks with the Uribe administration.

Rival AUC groups would exterminate the Bloque Metro and assassinate Doble Cero in 2004.

During its existence, Doble Cero and his group are estimated to have killed more than 4,000 people in Antioquia.