Salvatore Mancuso, alias “El Mono” or “Santander Lozada,” is a former Colombian paramilitary commander who was part of the Peasant Self Defence Forces of Córdoba and Urabá (Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá – ACCU) and the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC). In February 2024, after serving more than 15 years for drug trafficking in the United States, he returned to Colombia, where he was appointed a peace manager as part of President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” initiative.
History
Salvatore Mancuso Gómez was born on August 17, 1964, in Montería, a city in the department of Córdoba in northern Colombia. Born to an Italian father and a Colombian mother, Mancuso studied civil engineering and agricultural administration at university.
In the early 1990s, Mancuso became the administrator of several cattle ranches and was extorted by the Popular Liberation Army (Ejército Popular de Liberación – EPL), a guerrilla movement. From this point, he began to collaborate as an informant for the Colombian army in the department of Códoba to help their fight against the EPL.
His work with the army became known to brothers Carlos and Vincente Castaño, the main leaders of the ACCU, a paramilitary movement that sought to combat the expansion of the guerrillas in that area of Colombia. Mancuso joined the ACCU in 1994, where he was initially in charge of networking with local and regional politicians.
In 1995, he created the Nuevo Horizonte Surveillance and Security Cooperative in the municipality of Tierralta, Córdoba. The legal basis for the Cooperative came from a 1994 Colombian government decree, allowing the creation of civilian groups to collaborate with military forces in matters of security and public order. Through the Nuevo Horizonte Cooperative, and other cooperatives created by ACCU members, the paramilitaries were able to gain access to arms and resources and strengthen their political and military networks.
Beginning in 1996, Mancuso led the ACCU’s expansion into northern Colombia, specifically in the departments of Sucre, Bolívar, Cesar, Magdalena, La Guajira, and Atlántico. For this, he made use of alliances with political, economic, and military elites that made it possible for the paramilitaries to enter these areas.
In 1997, the Castaño brothers created the AUC, a federation of different self-defense movements with a presence in a wide range of places in Colombia. Mancuso became a member of what was known as the AUC General Staff, and in 1999 he led the AUC’s entry into the department of Norte de Santander through the Catatumbo Bloc.
After the resignation of Carlos Castaño as commander general of the AUC in 2001, Mancuso assumed an even more prominent role within the organization. From 2002 onwards, he accompanied the dialogue process between the AUC and the Colombian government, and subsequently, the demobilization process of the paramilitary blocs between 2003 and 2006.
Mancuso demobilized in December 2004. In May 2008, he was extradited to the United States for drug trafficking crimes, along with 12 other paramilitary leaders. In October 2008, he made a plea agreement with US prosecutors and was sentenced to 15 years and one month in prison. The agreement recognized the time Mancuso spent in jail in Colombia, helping to shorten his sentence.
Mancuso finished his sentence in the United States in March 2020 but was not released immediately. Instead, he was put in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while his immigration status was being resolved. Although he asked to be deported to Italy, where he is a citizen, the Colombian government requested his extradition to serve outstanding sentences in the ordinary and transitional Justice and Peace courts.
While serving time in the United States, Mancuso had in 2018 requested to be included in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz – JEP), a transitional tribunal created in Colombia to judge the acts committed by former combatants of the demobilized guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC). His request was based on his having been a third-party collaborator or financier of paramilitarism between 1989 and 1997. By being accepted into the JEP, Mancuso would be eligible for transitional benefits within the framework of the judicial proceedings against him, should he be extradited to Colombia.
However, in 2020 the JEP denied his request, stating that Mancuso had not been a civilian or a third party to paramilitary groups, but that, on the contrary, he was part of the armed structure of the organization. In November 2023, Mancuso’s legal team appealed the decision. The JEP accepted Mancuso’s submission to the court, arguing his role was being a hinge between politicians, military, and businessmen and the paramilitary groups.
In February 2024, almost four years after he had finished his sentence in the United States, Mancuso returned to Colombia.
Criminal Activity
Drug trafficking was a key activity that marked Mancuso’s time with the AUC. According to the US government court documents, Mancuso, together with other paramilitary leaders, was behind the shipment of several tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States via ports in Central America and the Caribbean. The Italian justice system has also carried out investigations against him for drug trafficking.
While serving his sentence in the United States, Mancuso was convicted in Colombia by the Justice and Peace courts, the transitional justice mechanism created in the legal framework of paramilitary demobilization, for the thousands of criminal acts he committed during his time as an AUC commander. These included homicides, displacements, forced disappearances, recruitment of minors, and torture, among others.
In Colombia, Mancuso is currently under investigation for money laundering associated with drug trafficking.
Geography
Mancuso had influence in northern Colombia, specifically in the departments of Córdoba, Sucre, Bolivar, Atlántico, Magdalena, Cesar, La Guajira, Norte de Santander, and some municipalities in the department of Antioquia. He oversaw massacres in these regions.
Allies and Enemies
During his time with the ACCU and the AUC, Mancuso directly confronted Colombian guerrillas, mainly the EPL, the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) and the FARC, in the different areas of the country.
While he was part of the AUC, Mancuso, an Italian citizen, had links to the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
He also had networks for laundering drug money. One of the best known was with Italian businessman Giorgio Sale, who through his businesses, laundered drug money for the AUC. Mancuso also allegedly laundered money through the gambling business of Enilse Lopez, alias “La Gata,” a businesswoman from the Caribbean coast who had close ties to paramilitary groups in northern Colombia.
Mancuso also weaved a web of connections with politicians, military officials, and businessmen that allowed the paramilitary expansion into different parts of the country. In the different hearings he has held before the Colombian justice system, he has mentioned high-ranking military officers, former presidential candidates, ex-presidents, and multinational banana and coal companies, who allegedly collaborated with paramilitary groups in Colombia.
Prospects
In August 2023, Mancuso was appointed peace manager in the framework of Total Peace, the project through which the government seeks to conduct negotiations with different armed criminal groups. As peace manager, Mancuso could facilitate dialogue with different armed groups, including those started after the demobilization of the AUC.
However, Mancuso’s appointment has generated debate, with some jurists believing that it is not clear what role Mancuso can play as a peace manager, considering that he demobilized almost 20 years ago.
It will be up to the Colombian courts to decide whether Mancuso’s appointment as a peace manager has legal grounds. Meanwhile, Mancuso remains in La Picota prison, Bogotá, awaiting the Colombian courts to determine his future.