Raúl Hasbún, alias Pedro Bonito, a banana plantation owner turned paramilitary chieftain, gave preliminary testimony in Medellín about his participation in several massacres, including against the Peace Community [of San José de Apartadó]. Massacres were a practice to ensure control of perceived guerrilla-controlled areas, and were seen as a mean to do business in the Urabá region. In his preliminary testimony on July 23, Hasbún implicated the former Army Fourth Brigade commander, Gen. Alfonso Manosalva Flórez, and said paramilitary meetings occurred at the brigade headquarters. [La FM, Medellín; Semana, Bogotá, July 24]

From Colombia Peace News, Fellowship of Reconciliation, July 2008

See our last post on the paramilitary terror and citizen peace initiatives in Colombia.