Salvatore Mancuso and Rodrigo Londoño apologize to the indigenous people of Colombia – Crimes – Justice

Former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso apologized for the murder of indigenous leader Kimy Pernía Domicó and said he was going to tell the truth about how the State gave information to the paramilitaries to target indigenous communities.

During the meeting for indigenous Truth, held by the Truth Commission this Friday, there was a conversation between Martha Cecilia Domicó, daughter of Pernía Domicó who disappeared in Tierra Alta (Córdoba) on June 2, 2001, and the former paramilitary.

In that conversationMancuso acknowledged the crime and noted that the victim’s remains were thrown into a river.

“I would like to apologize with all my heart for these events that have filled you with pain, mourning, and suffering. We should never have taken actions in the war (…) I was wrong, I apologize for that, for my actions in the conflict, ”Mancuso said in a telephone conversation with the relatives of Kimy Pernía.

The victim’s daughter pointed out that since 2007 she had tried to have that conversation and told her: “I would like to know the truth, what did you do with my father or what happened? Who were the people responsible?”

He added that he has suffered deep pain because he does not know what happened to his father and does not even have where to take him flowers.

(Also read: After the return of ‘Jorge 40’, 5 former bosses ‘paras’ remain in the US)

To which Mancuso replied: “what happened with you, with the indigenous peoples, hurts me” and pointed out that the Prosecutor’s Office did not allow them at the beginning of the proceedings to have communication with the victims or to hold forgiveness meetings.

And then he pointed out that the murder of Kimy Pernía was a State crime and that he received an order “from the State, from the Military Forces, from Commander Carlos Castaño” to assassinate the indigenous leader and that this was part of a systematic strategy to weaken to indigenous communities and prevent them from demanding their rights regarding issues such as the construction of Urrao, Antioquia.

And he said that that is why they began to census the indigenous people and restrict the elements that they could take to their communities.

“You are going to know what the mechanism was for the State institutions to inform us when you put pressure on them, and how the information reached us so that in one way or another we would get rid of that pressure that you did,” said Mancuso.

And he added that he does not know the exact place where the leader Kimy Perdía was buried but that after a while he was taken out and thrown into the Sinú River, in front of the Calleja slab.

The victim’s daughter said that she has no grudge: “We are not going to respond with violence and I am grateful for what she tells me. He told me what they did with him and now I’m going to bring the roses to him so that he can have peace of mind. “

Former members of the FARC guerrilla also took part in the act of forgiveness, who asked for forgiveness for their violent actions against the country’s indigenous communities.

The former head of the disappeared guerrilla, Rodrigo Londoño, pointed out that They were wrong to implement their expansion plans without taking into account the indigenous communities present in those regions to which they arrived.

(You may be interested in: The debts in the repair of the ‘expara’ Mancuso to the victims)

“We never consulted their aspirations, we never asked their opinion, at no time did we take into account their worldview that is different from ours,” said Londoño.