The tragic agony of alias ‘Rojas’, the guerrilla who handed over a leader of the Farc and was assassinated without receiving the $ 5 billion reward or protection

Pedro Pablo Montoya, known in the Farc as aka RojasIn 2008, he arrived at the VIII Brigade of the Army with proof that he had assassinated his boss, alias Iván Ríos; the man carried the leader’s hand. The limb represented to him a reward of 5,000 million pesos by the Government, headed by the then president, Álvaro Uribe, and his letter to reintegrate into society.

Thus, the man born in San Roque, Antioquia, put an end to years serving the guerrillas. He was recruited at the age of 16 and was part of the Northwest block, and sought refuge in a community strange to him. However, he first had to face a sentence of 18 years in prison, of which paid eight for the benefits of Justice and Peace Law.

Then, he looked for a new direction in the buildings and the pavement of Bogotá, thinking that he was far from the weapons, but it was not. His garment project was barely six months old when he started receiving threats. The demobilized person sought protection and the only thing that protected him was a document from the Immediate Reaction Unit, issued by the Prosecutor’s Office, which forced the Kennedy local police to take care of him. It was not enough, so he moved to Manzanares, Caldas, but the messages against his life did not cease.

In 2019, Montoya knocked on the doors of the authorities again to request their help. He collected videos, audios and documents warning that his life was in danger; the Magazine of the week released the evidence that supported the lawsuit against the Colombian State, in which it also attacked the United States organizations. “I am writing to the agents of the North American Government, delegates here in Colombia, to make the payment and disbursement of my reward, which the Government of that country delivers for the discharge and delivery of alias Iván Ríos”, he indicated.

The ex-guerrilla also warned about the ineffectiveness of the bodyguards they delegated for their care, after he received a security scheme from the National Protection Unit, as recorded in one of the letters he wrote. “Tomorrow, July 19, 2019, I am moving without any protection from the UNP, since the bodyguards They state that they do not offer my protection because they do not have money or travel expenses and they ordered me to hand over the armored vehicle ”.

August 3 Last year, Pedro Pablo Montoya was killed by two hooded men who came out of the bushes, on his farm in Manzanares, Caldas. They gave him eight shots. He passed away without receiving the full reward he was promised. When he was awarded 800 million pesos, he could not use them because they were withheld as part of the reparation to the victims of the conflict. At present, his family confesses that they do not know the prosecutor who is handling the case. They maintain that the only thing they complied with was the eight years that he had to spend behind bars for activity as a militant of the Farc.