Colombia: outrage as warlord's son picked to lead victim support project [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Jorge Rodrigo Tovar’s appointment ‘offensive’ – survivors

Father ‘Jorge 40’ terrorised civilians along Caribbean coast

Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá
@joeparkdan
Thu 21 May 2020 06.15 EDT

The son of a notorious death squad leader has been appointed to run the Colombian government’s programmes for victims of the country’s long civil war, prompting fury among survivors.

Jorge Rodrigo Tovar was this week put in charge of a scheme for compensating victims of the conflict – many of whom were terrorised by his father, Rodrigo Tovar, better known in Colombia as “Jorge 40”.

During the late 90s and early 2000s, the elder Tovar led the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (or AUC) – which was responsible for a string of massacres and the murder of hundreds of civilians along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

In February 2000, militiamen under his command tortured and dismembered over 60 peasant farmers in the isolated village of El Salado, in one of the worst single acts of violence in the five-decade war. Victims – including a six-year old girl and an elderly woman – were stabbed, beaten and strangled to death.

. . .

The conflict between the Colombian state and leftist rebel groups including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or Farc) left 260,000 dead and displaced over 7 million. State-aligned paramilitary groups, like the one led by Jorge 40, committed some of the bloodiest atrocities of the 52-year civil war.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/colombia-civil-war-jorge-40-son