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Rodrigo Tovar Pupo
Topics: Colombian murderers Members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, (aka Jorge 40 his nom de guerre) was born in Valledupar, Colombia. He was the leader of the northern block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. He demobilized with his two thousand men strong group on March 10, 2006 in La Mesa, Department of Cesar.
A laptop computer belonging to Tovar contained information on over 550 murders and started the 2006 Para-political scandal in which several congressmen have been indicted for corruption.
From cattle owner and farmer, member of Fenalce and Fedearroz and a public official, pass to comamnd 4500 men of the Northern block that dominate the territories of Cesar, La Guajira, Magdalena, Atlantico and part of both Santander and Norte de Santander Departments.
"Just hearing his name instills fear in us", said a member of the Kankuamos, a native community from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta who accused him of the assassination of more than 100 of their members.
He is also accused of covertly masterminding the repression of the Aseguradoras del Regimen Subsidiado de Salud (ARS) (Spanish for Health Subsidized Regime Insurance) in many municipalities in the Caribbean Region. Besides, he's the alleged ring leader of a loose confederation of drug traffickers operating in the eastern zone of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (a coastal mountain range in northern Colombia) and La Guajira (and adjecent region bordering Venezuela). Due to these activities the United States Government has asked for his extradition in order to bring him to an American court.
Jorge 40 was indicted for masterminding the massacre of over 60 natives from the aboriginal Wayuu and Wiwa tribes in La Guajira and Magdalena provinces. They were allegedly executed by the northern block in 2004. Jorge 40 has also been connected to the death of 21 people in the municipality of Aracataca better known by it's fictional name 'Macondo' (Magdalena).
The Organization of American States (OAS) denounced Jorge 40's paramilitary activities colluded with local government forces in order to kill eight people in Curumani, Cesar, accusing them to be informants of the ELN guerrilla. The massacre occurred between December 4 and December 5, 2005.
See also
Carlos Castano
Salvatore Mancuso
Colombian Armed Conflict
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
References
Eltiempo.com - article on Rodrigo Tovar's surrender to colombian authorities
Eltiempo.com - article of illegal activities
Links between Jorge Tovar and the influential Araujo family
Eltiempo.com - list of politicians that work with Jorge Tovar found in his laptop
US Department of State report
Special Report El Tiempo Newspaper of Colombia
Colombian Air Force; Final report of the office of the attorney general reveals plan of Jorge 40 to take over the (Caribbean) Coast
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Rodrigo Tovar Pupo