Police arrest leader of right-wing militia (Colombia)

[Judi Lynn]

Police arrest leader of right-wing militia

Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published May 29, 2005
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A right-wing paramilitary leader accused of killing a state congressman surrendered Friday after a four-day hunt, police said.

President Alvaro Uribe ordered the arrest of Diego Fernando Murillo last week, throwing peace talks with the paramilitary groups into turmoil just days before Colombian legislators are expected to pass an amnesty bill that would bring about a final peace deal. Other paramilitary leaders said earlier that the talks would continue without Murillo, a leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

Murillo allegedly ran a team of assassins used by Pablo Escobar's drug cartel. He is accused in the April 10 kidnapping and killing of lawmaker Orlando Benitez, his sister and an aide.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505290010may29,1,5656746.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
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Colombian warlord turns himself in
28 May 2005 00:58:04 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Updates with surrender)

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Colombia, May 27 (Reuters) - Diego Murillo, a top leader of Colombia's far-right paramilitaries, turned himself in on Friday after a three-day manhunt, a move that may help salvage strained peace talks with the illegal militias.

The 44-year-old warlord was on the paramilitary negotiating team trying to reach a peace deal with the government before he was ordered arrested earlier this week for suspected involvement in the April assassination of a provincial lawmaker.

Accused by the United States of drug smuggling, Murillo is one of the most feared men in Colombia for his suspected involvement in numerous killings and massacres of peasants suspected of cooperating with Colombia's Marxist guerrillas.

Colombian television showed footage of the overweight Murillo being led into custody by police in Santa Fe de Ralito, a town in northern Colombia that for two years has hosted the paramilitary peace talks.
(snip/...)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27556826.htm

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Colombian militia leader arrested



The government had offered a reward for Diego Murillo's arrest

A leading right-wing paramilitary leader in Colombia has turned himself in after a three-day manhunt.
Diego Murillo, also known as Don Berna, was arrested for suspected involvement in the killing of a local politician.

He is a top commander of the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), and, according to Colombian and US sources, a major drug trafficker.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4588869.stm

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...Diego Fernando Murillo, AKA "Don Berna" and "Adolfo Paz"

The United States, which has provided Colombia with intelligence to help in its hunt for Murillo, believes he runs a Medellin-based gang responsible for a large part of the country's massive drug exports.

But the United States supports the peace talks with the paramilitaries, although the head of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar, this week expressed concerns about a potential law which could let AUC members get away with relatively short jail sentences.

Washington has provided more than $3 billion in mainly military aid to Colombia to help it fight the cocaine industry and rebels since 2000.
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http://webcenters.compuserve.com/compuserve/celebrity/story.jsp?id=2005052717350002199288&dt=20050527173500&w=RTR&coview=

[Robbien]

1. The guy on the peace team was a known hit man?

Since they knew this when setting up the peace team, the US/Columbia must have been okay with it. Why the change of heart now?