MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former FARC leader not arrested in Mexico, just deported

If he is ever arrested, a 35-year jail sentence awaits Granda in Paraguay.

Former Colombian guerrilla leader Rodrigo Granda, who was denied entry into Mexico Tuesday, was deported back to his native country. He explained he had never been under arrest.

Upon arriving back at Bogotá's Eldorado airport, Granda said “some very influential people of the Colombian government” had activated a dormant warrant for his capture within Interpol.

Granda insisted it was all a manoeuvre against the peace treaty he and other FARC leaders signed with then-President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016 in Havana, Cuba.

The Colombian guerrilla leader is still wanted in Paraguay for his alleged involvement from an intellectual and logistic angle in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former President Raúl Cubas and those judicial proceedings do not fall under protection clauses stemming from the arrangement with Santos.

In fact, in the United States, FARC leaders continue to be linked to dozens of investigations for drug trafficking and kidnapping, even though the US Government has encouraged peace negotiations in 2016.

As per that accord, the so-called JEP Court was created to deal with cases of terrorism involving FARC members and the JEP had cleared Granda to go to Mexico for an academic event at which he was to have lectured on the Colombian Peache Process, which earned Santos de 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Colombian Government has denied any connection with what happened to Granda in Mexico and explained that Interpol's arrest warrants are processed independently by each country.

Defense Minister Diego Molano said Granda had been detained due to a red alert against him from Paraguay “for kidnapping, criminal association and intentional homicide,” which was beyond the Colombian authorities “to modify, clarify or cancel.”

The NGO Human Rights International had also underlined Granda had never been arrested but rather denied entry into Mexico and that despite the red alert against him he would soon be back in Colombia on an Avianca flight. According to press reports, Granda's entry had been denied through a presidential decree signed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself.

Hours earlier, members of the Comunes Party of which Granda is a member had posted on social media about Granda's unclear situation but later confirmed he was just being sent back home.

The 31-year-old Cecilia Cubas Gusinky, daughter of former Paraguayan President Raúl Cubas Grau was found dead in 2004 after 5 months of kidnapping, and Paraguayan sleuths have always pointed fingers at FARC. A warrant for Granda's arrest has been issued since 2008.

The victim had been kidnapped Sept. 21, 2004, by members of the armed wing of the Free Homeland Party, who called themselves the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP), a criminal group that started as bank robbers. After her abduction, Cubas Gusinky spent 5 months in captivity, during which time the family reportedly refused to pay a ransom for her release. She was subsequently killed.

Her body was found Feb. 16, 2005, buried in a grave covered with cement, during a raid on a property in the Mbocayaty neighbourhood of the city of Ñemby, after neighbours of the sector denounced strange events.

Paraguayan forensic tests showed she had been tortured and even placed in her grave while she was still alive, approximately in December 2004.

Granda has been linked to this case due to information found on the computer of former FARC commander Raúl Reyes, who died during a bombing by Colombia's regular militias on the border between Colombia and Ecuador under former President Álvaro Uribe.

Data found on that hard drive placed Free Homeland Party founder Osmar Martínez together with other leaders of his group in Venezuela, where they allegedly met Granda, who advised on how to carry out the crime. Martínez has died in prison, while the other leaders are said to have sought asylum in Finland.

If he is ever arrested, a 35-year jail sentence awaits Granda in Paraguay.