In an article dated January 20 (even though it is only the 18th, I am not sure how this happened), found in The Economist, there can be found some notes from the confessions of a paramilitary leader in Columbia. These notes disclose that there was a peace deal made between President Álvaro Uribe and Salvatore Mancuso, a paramilitary leader. It states that through this deal, in exchange for confessing and paying reparations the leaders are "eligible" for sentences of no more than 8 years, and the guarantee of not being extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking. In his deposition Mancuso gave a presentation sharing over 87 different accounts and operation that involved the murder of over 300 people during the time frame of 1992 and 2003. Mancuso's deposition was postponed until later this month. I feel that this is a new step for Columbia, if they are able to make use of the information that was given and if more accounts are given. However, I am not sure how much information they will receive, so far they have mentioned that the names that Mancuso was willing to provide included only men that were already dead or convicted. Yet, with the information that will be given in the rest of Mancuso's deposition about drug trafficking may prove to be useful to work on stopping the flow. It mentioned that Mancuso is wanted in the US for charges of trafficking over 17 tons of cocaine. If confessions like this can help the US fight its drug war it will be a great feat.
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I think that Mancuso is getting off fairly lightly. For being involved in the deaths of over 300 individuals and trafficking 17 tons of cocaine seems like a little too high profile and serious to be given such a sweet deal like that. Do you agree? Now that I think about it though, I am sure that the Columbian prison system is no walk in the park as he will probably be killed for "ratting" on his friends and selling out. Either way, I think he deserves a little bit more time to sit in the corner and think about what he did.
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