FARC politician Santrich finally took his seat in Congress
After spending more than a year in jail, “without any evidence”, as he himself recalled, FARC former commander Jesus Santrich was formally sworn in in Colombia’s House of Representatives.
A House committee approved Santrich’ entry to Congress on Monday, despite a vicious resistance by President Ivan Duque and his far-right Democratic Center party, who called the FARC’s former ideologue a “mafioso”, thus confirming the hatred which permeates their policy.
Santrich inauguration followed a year-long judicial battle that began with a US extradition request on an unsubstantiated drug trafficking charge in April last year.
The president called in the Inspector General’s Office to immediately begin procedures to remove the FARC politician from congress over the unproven drug trafficking allegations.
The US government, which has insisted that the virtually blind Santrich conspired to traffic 10 tons of cocaine, refused to surrender evidence to the JEP (Special Jurisdiction for Peace) and has yet to effectively cooperate with the Supreme Court.
A hearing the DEA informant who claims Santrich led the drug trafficking conspiracy was suspended on Monday after the US Department of Justice informed the court that their witness was not yet “adequately prepared”.
