“Mancuso believed that Uribe was going to save him”: Gustavo Petro reveals that the former AUC commander asked him for help not to kill his son

Presidential candidate Gustavo Petro represented his proposal for social pardon at a public demonstration in Monteria, Córdoba. In reference to paramilitarism and former president Álvaro Uribe, he told a personal anecdote with paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso and from which the idea that has been controversial in recent weeks would have arisen.

Petro was born in Córdoba and during the demonstration he narrated part of his childhood in the home of his maternal grandmother; and then recounted the history of violence that that department experienced, due to the presence of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and other paramilitary groups.

“The strange men hiding their faces, at night, arriving at the hamlet without light, to kill one after another, the massacre dreamed of Córdoba and those without masks sponsoring this massacre were becoming senators, governors, becoming presidents of the Republic and proudly showing the size of their farms. Having farms in the midst of the massacre, what a sadness,” Petro said during his pronouncement.

The candidate pointed out that as a result of this story, it is up to the current generation to change it, because of the proposal he has put forward and that it will not lead to retaliation against those who sowed violence in the department.

“Now it's not about taking revenge on these pages that I have just told, it's not about hate, we can't let our hearts be filled with hate because it destroys us. It is neither revenge nor hatred, those who soiled their hands with blood in this department can rest assured that Petro is not going to take revenge against them,” added the candidate of the Historical Pact.

At that time, Petro narrated a conversation he had with Salvatore Mancuso, commander of the AUC, who would have called him from prison, asking for help in a security situation involving his son.

Petro apologized for mentioning former President Uribe in his speech, he said, because he had said he would not recall it again “because it is a thing of the past.”

Mancuso would have told Petro to help him because some men on motorcycles were chasing his son in Monteria. According to the current presidential candidate, the former paramilitary chief was frightened, but did not give details of the date of the conversation. He was extradited to the United States and returned to the country a few months ago, where he must finish paying his outstanding crimes and has shown himself willing to appear in the JEP.

This would have been the origin of the proposal of social forgiveness that has generated controversy among Petro's program, especially since it linked it to a group of prisoners convicted of corruption such as Iván Moreno, with whom his brother, Juan Fernando Petro, held a meeting in La Picota prison. Among that group was Álvaro 'El Gordo' García, who was designated as Mancuso's right-hand man in the creation of the Heroes of the Montes de María Block.

“I didn't respond with hatred, I felt that history had changed course, that the one who had unleashed so much sadness, who had boasted about being in the club, had ended up betrayed, abandoned, poor and sad and alone in prison. I did not feel revenge, it seemed to me that it was a symbol of a change of times, that it was possible to consider the option of social forgiveness. It occurred to me to talk about it again at Easter and I dropped all the media,” Petro added from Monteria.

During the event, he also argued that social forgiveness could be applied to land problems. He proposed the creation of irrigation districts in Córdoba and then, with the valorization of the land, to buy the unproductive land to be handed over to the peasants.

“To those who allowed millions of peasants to be removed from their land, to whom they allowed death and eviction, we offer them an olive branch. Here we are not going to rule against them, here we are not going to rule against those who do not vote for us. We are not going to face one part of society against another, we offer a social pact, a historic pact, a social forgiveness based on justice,” Petro concluded.

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