Colombian Carlos Noel Buitrago Vega, accused in his home country of human-rights violations as a member of a demobilized right-wing paramilitary group, has been detained in Bolivia, the Interior Minister announced on 28 June, and is being deported to Colombia.
Colombian Carlos Noel Buitrago Vega, accused in his home country of human-rights violations as a member of a demobilized right-wing paramilitary group, has been detained in Bolivia, the Interior Minister announced on 28 June, and is being deported to Colombia.
“The result of several months of coordination with the Colombian state has concluded in the arrest of Carlos Noel Buitrago Vega, alias ‘Porremacho,’ who is a big fish not only in drug trafficking, but also in terrorism,” Minister Sacha Llorenti affirmed at a press conference, at which Buitrago was exhibited in handcuffs.
He stated that Buitrago “has more than fifty counts pending against him in Colombia, not only for ties to drug trafficking, but also to paramilitary activities and in relation to his participation in massacres, in human-rights violations, and the commission of crimes against humanity.”
He indicated that Buitrago is a former member of a demobilized right-wing paramilitary group, the Peasant Self-Defense Units of El Casanare, and that “the (Bolivian) state made the decision to expel this individual and that he be immediately turned over to Colombian authorities to stand trial.”
According to the minister’s account, Buitrago entered Bolivia two years ago to organize drug-trafficking activities, and investigators were able to determine that he shipped around four hundred kilograms of cocaine to Brazil every two months.