Colonel (r) Orlando Vivas was admitted by the JEP, indicated by links with paramilitary groups

It became known this Thursday, March 31, that the Definition Chamber of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) accepted the submission of Colonel (r) Orlando Vivas Muñoz, former Deputy Commander of the Sucre Police, for his alleged links with paramilitary groups in that department.

The first to point him out of having relations with illegal groups was Ángel Miguel Berrocal Doria, alias' Gocha ', killed in November 2021 and who during his time at the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) was urban chief in Sucre.

Because he took advantage of Justice and Peace, Berrocal Doria was released after paying a few years in prison and was found dead, with signs of torture and gunshot wounds. At the time of his death, the exmobilized person was engaged in proceedings with the Prosecutor's Office, in which he collaborated in the search for possible victims of the armed conflict, buried in mass graves.

The decision of transitional justice, it is known after La W reproduced extracts from the official document issued. In this one can read that “Colonel Orlando Vivas, for the year 2003, was the second commander of the Sincelejo district. At that time he received an average of three million pesos per month, which Willer Cobo received from the AUC.”

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On March 21, 2017, through Bulletin 19043, the Attorney General's Office reported on the capture of Vivas Muñoz, since that moment he has been protected by an insurance measure, for the crime of an aggravated crime concert, related to paramilitary groups in Sucre.

“According to the evidence collected and the accounts of several witnesses, the then colonel provided weapons and ammunition to the AUC, cleared areas for them to facilitate their activities and prevented the capture of its members, in exchange for this collaboration, he received a monthly payment of 3 million pesos,” says the document of research entity.

Another who accused him of having ties with the AUC was the former governor of Sucre, Salvador Arana, in his speech at the JEP in July 2021, stated that Colonel Norman León Arango, former commander of the Sucre Police, was a cover-up for the paramilitaries. Arana indicated that he “held a meeting with him and Colonel Orlando Vivas, second in command, in a van with Rodrigo Peluffo, alias' Cadena ', former commander of the Northern Bloc of the AUC.

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In the decision of the peace court, the magistrates ordered the colonel (r) to proceed to sign the act of formal submission. In addition, they requested the detention center where he is being held in Facatativá to report how long he has been in that condition. The former Deputy Commander of the Sucre Police must also submit within twenty days his plan of contribution to the truth, in which he will have to refer to what issues of the conflict he will help to clarify, especially in the investigations against him.

“It is noted that a narrative that seeks to contribute with the truth by contributing what is already known judicially is insufficient, so it is necessary that the proposal specifies the novelty of its contribution or the clarifying intention of it,” indicates the determination of the JEP. While direct victims are identified and linked to the process, the Public Prosecutor's Office will assume their defense.

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