Colombia’s Constitutional Court president also linked to paramilitary land theft
Colombia’s Constitutional Court president also linked to paramilitary land theft
Apr 14, 2015 posted by Ardalan Al-Jaf
The president of Colombia’s Constitutional Court — already in trouble over bribery allegations — has also been linked to paramilitary violence after investigators found that land he owns had been stolen from displaced farmers.
Prosecutors have called the wife of court president Jorge Pretelt, Martha Patron, for questioning after finding that the Pretelt family owns plots of land that was stolen from local farmers from the northwestern Uraba region by paramilitaries in the 1990s.
. . .
Towards the end of the 1990s, in an apparent alliance with leaders of paramilitary organization AUC, the ranchers appropriated at least 6,500 hectares of land belonging to 60 families of farmers in Uraba.
. . .
Other than being a training ground for the AUC and the site of their victims’ mass graves, two country houses on the land owned by Pretelt were allegedly obtained through forced displacement.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-constitutional-court-president-also-linked-to-paramilitary-land-theft/
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141067325
Colombia remains Latin America's largest recipient of US taxpayers' boatloads of foreign aid.
