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WORLD NEWSSaturday 3 October 2015
Colombia´s Senator and former President Alvaro Uribe gestures during an interview with The As- Colombian military kills ruthless
sociated Press in Bogota, Colombia. warlord of rural cocaine fiefdom
(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) LIBARDO CARDONA
FRANK BAJAK
AP Interview: Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A years-long manhunt
Uribe challenges Colombia’s peace plan for a ruthless cocaine warlord who ruled a remote
rural fiefdom with an armed band and generous
JOSHUA GOODMAN sequences of what’s hap- leading to a big drop in kid- bribes has ended with a military raid that killed the
JACOBO GARCIA nappings and killings. Now man officials called Colombia’s second most-want-
Associated Press pening,” Uribe said. a senator for his fledgling ed criminal.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Democratic Center party, Victor Navarro, a 39-year-old better known by the
— Former President Alvaro Current President Juan he remains a key power alias “Megateo,” long dominated the historically
Uribe harshly criticized the broker. In August, before lawless Catatumbo region that hugs Venezuela. It is
international community Manuel Santos and the the recent breakthrough, where he was killed Thursday night in a ground and
for applauding a recent he had an approval rating air attack, authorities said.
breakthrough in his succes- Revolutionary Armed almost double that of San- Law officials had been fixated on him because of
sor’s peace talks with leftist tos, who was Uribe’s de- what he represented: the possible future of orga-
rebels, saying the deal un- Forces of Colombia an- fense minister. nized crime in Colombia if nearly three-year-old
dermines the rule of law in As the FARC’s most vocal peace talks between the government and the
Colombia. nounced an agreement critic, Uribe is one of Colom- country’s largest rebel group succeed.
Uribe told The Associated bia’s most heavily guarded With a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head and a 2011
Press that it’s a double last week on the thorny is- politicians, crisscrossing the drug-trafficking indictment pending in Florida, Na-
standard for the U.S. and country protected by more varro had faced 45 arrest warrants and Colombian
Europe to demand jail time sue of punishment for war than 20 bodyguards and a prosecutors said he was suspected in dozens of kill-
for terrorists from Spanish caravan of armor-plated ings.
separatist group ETA, the crimes, a breakthrough in SUVs. He was especially hunted for a 2006 ambush in which
Irish Republican Army or But as the peace talks have his men killed 17 soldiers and intelligence agents who
al-Qaida but expect Co- three-year-old talks that advanced, he has found had set out from Bogota to capture him but were be-
lombia to demonstrate himself more isolated po- trayed by a double agent, a secret police detective
leniency to guerrillas ac- paves the way for a final litically, with even former who abandoned the operation at the last minute
cused of atrocities during allies in the U.S. privately and is now serving a 40-year sentence for murder.
the country’s five-decade accord within six months. criticizing his rejection of Navarro claimed to lead the last remaining faction
civil conflict. the negotiations and many of the Popular Liberation Army, a rebel movement
“I’m more worried about Under the agreement, reb- Colombian victims, the that disbanded in 1991. But to authorities, he was
what Colombians think United Nations and the In- nothing more than one of Colombia’s main cocaine
than the international com- els who confess abuses to ternational Criminal Court’s traffickers, a criminal heavyweight whose muscle
munity because we are chief prosecutor expressing and ability to evade capture derived from the fear
the ones who are going to special peace tribunals, cautious optimism about he instilled and alliances he made with gangs of for-
have to live with the con- the talks.q mer far-right militiamen and with the country’s two
compensate victims and largest rebel groups.
Colombia’s most-wanted criminal, Dario Antonio
promise not to take up Usuga, is a veteran of far-right militias who heads a
much larger organization known as the Urabenos,
arms again will receive a with an estimated 2,000 gunmen.
A thickly built man of medium height, Navarro was
maximum eight years of la- notorious for his garish jewelry. He wore a big gold
ring on each hand — one encrusted with diamonds,
bor under unspecified con- the other emeralds. In one photo police obtained in
a raid, a golden pistol hangs from a necklace.
ditions, but not prison time. His brazenness drew comparisons, although in minia-
ture, to Pablo Escobar, the cocaine kingpin who ter-
War crimes committed by rorized Colombia for two decades until he was killed
by police in 1993.
Colombia’s military will also Jay Bergman, the Andean region chief for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Associat-
be judged by the tribunals. ed Press in 2013 that Navarro was believed to have
only about 60 men under arms but that many more
Combatants caught lying from his allies would come to his aid if he were under
siege.q
will face penalties of up to
20 years in jail.
Uribe left office in 2010 with
an 80 percent approval
rating after having driven
the FARC from major cities,
