Alias Otoniel mentioned candidate Luis Pérez for alleged links with paramilitaries

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias Otoniel, has made it clear to the Colombian justice system that he has a lot to tell, but it is not known how much truth is in his words. At a recent hearing, he handed over a new list of names including several politicians and former regional leaders, while preparing to be extradited to the United States.

It had been known that Otoniel gave the magistrates of the peace court Alejandro Ramelli and Hugo Escobar Fernández de Castro a list of the names of persons who had connections with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and their dissident groups after the demobilization, including senators, politicians, military and businessmen.

As reported on that last stage, among the names were a former mayor of Medellín and former governor of Antioquia, who according to the newspaper El Espectador, is Luis Pérez Gutiérrez, current independent presidential candidate.

Otoniel pointed out, as the aforementioned newspaper learned, that Perez did not finance or support the AGC or the other groups militarily, but was close to alias Mi Sangre, whom, according to his testimony, he helped with the delivery of information. Even their meetings would have taken place during 2009 and 2010, when Pérez Gutiérrez was not an official but coordinator of Juan Manuel Santos's campaign in Antioquia.

Pérez spoke to El Espectador and said that if he had met Mi Sangre, it would have been during the demobilization of the AUC between 2003 and 2005, when he was mayor of Medellín; but he never had a close relationship with that drug trafficker.

Mi Sangre is the alias of Henry de Jesús López Londoño, who, for a decade, was known throughout the American continent as one of the most powerful kingpins. Seeking to evade justice, he ended up in Argentina, where he was finally captured in 2012 and extradited to the United States.

But until that date, in Colombia there was no arrest warrant against him, despite the extensive criminal record. It began as a 'washing machine' of the 'Envigado' Office, responsible for providing chemicals for the processing of cocaine and prostitutes for the bosses.

He later fulfilled the same function for the Centauros Block, one of the most powerful in the AUC, led by Miguel Arroyave, for whom alias Otoniel also served. López Londoño would have escalated to lead the Capital Block with interference in Bogotá, of that armed group.

For that reason, it would have handed over the arms in Santa Fe de Ralito in the demobilization process as a middle command in mid-2005. But by that time he would have been linked to Los Urabeños and, after the capture of alias Don Mario, he would have continued with the Úsuga brothers, heir clan and later originated from the Gulf Clan led by Otoniel.

According to Caracol Radio, alias Mi Sangre, had ordered the murder of a head of La Oficina, so he had to flee since 2007. He ended up in Argentina where he was captured on October 30, 2012 in the city of Pilar, north of Buenos Aires, where he lived a life of luxury. The capture was made effective by a request for extradition from the Court of the Southern District of Florida.

Since 2011 he had claimed, even before the IACHR, that he was politically persecuted by the Colombian Police, but was eventually transferred to the United States in 2016. Two years later he was convicted of having conspired to send more than 60 tons of cocaine to that country, through a drug trafficking network that passed throughout the continent. Among them as one of the main suppliers of Los Zetas in Mexico.

Otoniel's testimony linking him to former mayor and former governor Luis Pérez must be verified by the authorities, like the rest of the people he has accused of having criminal ties with paramilitary groups, among which he also mentioned former governors of Meta, Casanare and Guaviare, as well as the former army commander, Mario Montoya Uribe.

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