The death of a marked mayor

This is the chronicle of a death foretold.

Mayor Eudaldo “Tito” Diaz knew he was a marked man. He had resisted right-wing paramilitary fighters in El Roble, a town in the northern state of Sucre, and the assassins had him in their sights. In a town hall meeting, he confronted Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, grabbing the microphone and warning that he was going to be killed.

Two months later, Diaz was seized by a dozen men in several cars, apparently betrayed by members of his personal security team.

He was taken to the notorious paramilitary “concentration camp,” a ranch called El Palmar where several mass graves have been found. He was tortured for five days before being shot to death.

The assassination of Diaz, a 47-year-old doctor, affords a glimpse of the nightmare that war-torn Colombia has experienced for decades. The nation relived the nightmare this month with the testimony of paramilitary capo Salvatore Mancuso, as he confessed to drug trafficking, mass murder, extortion and usurping vast tracts of land -- all with the help of corrupt politicians.

In the four northern states, including Sucre, that Mancuso controlled, politicos who resisted were ruthlessly cut down. Diaz became one of the victims in April 2003.

“My father died wanting a better country, where mafias can’t traffic in drugs and loot cities, where innocent people aren’t killed at the whim of politicians to perpetuate themselves in power,” said Juan David Diaz, the late mayor’s 28-year-old son, who also is a doctor and who now heads the local victims rights group Movement of Victims of State Crimes, based here in Sucre’s capital.

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Tell-all testimony

In his tell-all session before a special tribunal, Mancuso was the first in a parade of paramilitary leaders expected to testify before a special court to comply with terms of Colombia’s peace process and exempt themselves from extradition to the United States.

Tales of atrocities committed by paramilitaries and left-wing rebels are nothing new in Colombia after four decades of civil war, and the nation will probably hear many more such accounts in the coming months as other paramilitary leaders appear in court.

But the first-person account from Mancuso, reading calmly from a laptop computer and dressed impeccably in expensive-looking business suits, added a special note of horror. As he ticked off the names of dozens of politicians he controlled and of the businessmen he extorted for financial support, the extent to which the paramilitaries’ tentacles reached into Colombia’s political and business life became vividly evident.

Mancuso completed his testimony in the same week that arrest warrants were issued for five more Colombian Congress members, nearly all Uribe supporters, for alleged dealings with the illegal right-wing militias. That brought the number of lawmakers behind bars to 13, all but one of whom are Uribe supporters. Vice President Francisco Santos said this month that the number could go as high as 40.

The ripples from the arrests and Mancuso’s testimony reached all the way to Washington, where Congress since 2000 has approved more than $5 billion in anti-drug and counter-terrorism aid under Plan Colombia.

Although the crimes in question happened years ago, observers say the month’s events have worsened the odds for a U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement, thrown a shadow over Plan Colombia and lessened confidence in Uribe.

The right-wing militias were formed by ranchers as self-defense groups to face down leftist rebel groups. But they have morphed into criminal gangs that killed, plundered and trafficked in drugs.

Mancuso testified as part of the demobilization process that has seen 31,000 militia members lay down their arms. He and the other paramilitary leaders expect light sentences in exchange for admitting all of their atrocities, making reparations and renouncing their criminal enterprises. But, as recently leaked transcripts of wiretaps of the jailed leaders seem to show, many continue managing their criminal networks from their jail cells.

Mancuso and other paramilitary leaders had numerous ways of financing their military operations and enriching themselves. Drug trafficking was the principal method, supplying 70% of the money paramilitaries generated, the late paramilitary leader Carlos Castano once said. They also shook down all of the businesses in their zones of influence, from banana plantations to taxi drivers, for monthly protection payments, or “vaccinations.”

Through corrupt politicians at the state and national level, Mancuso and other paramilitary leaders took control of state lotteries and regional public works projects, which they systematically looted or took kickbacks from. In return, politicians who carried their water were assured of victory at the polls through intimidation of potential rivals and of voters.

Diaz ran for mayor with plans to improve the quality of life of the people of El Roble with better healthcare, education and public works. But soon after his election, paramilitaries, through corrupt politicians, began making demands, including the right to pick the town treasurer and directors of health, education and public works, said the younger Diaz.

By controlling those posts, Mancuso and his minions could loot the bulk of El Roble’s $1-million annual budget plus tens of thousands more dollars in health funds transferred from the national government. Diaz rejected the demands.

“The paramilitaries wanted all the resources that the town had to progress. But my father couldn’t just leave the town in misery,” Diaz said. “He was the only mayor of Sucre to resist, and so is the only mayor to be killed in the last several years.”

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Previous complaint

Mayor Diaz had complained to Uribe on two occasions that his life was in danger, first in December 2002, saying that the paramilitaries had the support of Sucre Gov. Salvador Arana, now a fugitive wanted on paramilitary corruption charges.

Diaz confronted Uribe a second time at the town hall meeting in February 2003. He took over the microphone, denounced the governor and other officials for being in league with the paramilitary forces, and warned that he would soon be killed for speaking out.

According to those present, he spoke for 10 minutes and continued even though a bell rang twice signaling that his time was up. He finally ceded the floor when Uribe told his director of town hall meetings to launch an investigation.

Uribe previously had sent 2,000 additional troops to El Roble because it straddles drug-trafficking routes.

Before killing him, Diaz’s assassins made him sign several blank orders authorizing fake public works projects in El Roble -- another way paramilitaries loot small towns’ treasuries.

“In the end, they got what they wanted,” his son said. “But they had to kill him first.”

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chris.kraul@latimes.com