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News > Latin America

Anniversary of Galan's Assassination Highlights Impunity in Colombia

  • Campaign poster (Source: Frontera Informativa).

    Campaign poster (Source: Frontera Informativa).

Published 18 August 2014
Opinion

Left leaning politician was assassinated during presidential campaign.

Acts commemorating the life of the former Colombian presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, were held Monday marking 25 years since his assasination. 

Sarmiento, the Liberal Party candidate for the 1990 Colombian elections, was assassinated during a mass rally held in the town of Soacha.

Galán is remembered for opposing the growing power of drug cartels and for his left-leaning proposals. He was also one of the first critics of the growing ties between the Colombian state and paramilitary groups.

Unidentified gunmen, members of the Medellin cartel, shot the candidate dead from under the stage on which he was delivering a speech.

Galán's assassins have, until now, not been caught.

According to investigations related to the case, it was Carlos Castaño – an Israeli-trained, CIA collaborator, paramilitary leader – who planned the death of the late candidate.

Castaño died in 2004, after leading the paramilitary group Autodefensas Colombianas (AUC) and never facing justice for his numerous crimes.

Castaño died in 2004, after leading the paramilitary group Autodefensas Colombianas (AUC) and never facing justice for his numerous crimes. Pablo Escobar has also been accused of plotting the assassination with Castaño.

The murderers of Galán were identified as being paramilitary leaders Gonzalo de Jesús Pérez and his son Henry, which both were killed by rival cartels in the region.

The Colombian justice system is also looking into former state authorities being collaborators in the crime. The Public Prosecutor is set to file charges against Manuel Antonio Gonzales, former DAS (Colombian Intelligence Department) attache in Soacha and Major Luis Felipe Montilla, the head of the police in Soacha at the time, on a trial planned for October 22. 
 
The Colombian authorities have already arrested over 37 people for allegedly being implicated in the case, but most have been released without charges.

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