Wanted Colombian Surrenders

A right-wing paramilitary leader accused of killing a state congressman surrendered Friday after a four-day nationwide manhunt, the national police said.

President Alvaro Uribe ordered the arrest of Diego Fernando Murillo this week, throwing peace negotiations with paramilitary groups into turmoil days before Colombian legislators were expected to pass an amnesty bill that would bring about a final peace deal. Other paramilitary leaders said earlier Friday that the talks would continue without Murillo.

RCN television showed footage of Murillo walking with government Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo. More than a dozen armed police officers surrounded Murillo, a leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, but he was not handcuffed.

“He turned himself in due to the pressure bearing down on him from the police search,” Sgt. Jamat Guapacho said.

Murillo once allegedly ran a team of assassins used by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cocaine cartel. He is accused in the April 10 kidnapping and killing of Cordoba state lawmaker Orlando Benitez, his sister and an aide.

A peace deal with the AUC is expected to reduce the intensity of Colombia’s war, but leftist rebel groups have not agreed on peace talks with the government.

A statement from the office of the government’s peace commissioner confirmed the arrest and said Murillo had agreed to order the demobilization of all the men under his command -- about 4,000 armed fighters.

Also Friday, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, urged followers to unite against Uribe’s reelection campaign.

Uribe was swept into power in 2002 on a pledge to defeat the FARC militarily. His approval rating hovers around 70%.