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Colombian AUC rebels hand over
last of their weapons
The Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC), once Colombia's
largest rebel army with 27,000
soldiers, handed in the last of
their weapons on Friday,
completing a 2003 peace
agreement, local media reported.
Some 2,200 soldiers of the North
Bloc, run by Rodrigo Tovar Pupo,
known as Jorge 40, were the last
to hand over weapons. The Bloc
had handed in some weapons in
two previous phases on March 4
and March 7.
The final demobilization was
presided over by Luis Carlos
Restrepo, the government's high
commissioner for peace, at La
Mesain the northeastern
department of Cesar on the
frontier with Venezuela. The
North Bloc had controlled
Atlantic coast departments,
including Cesar, La Guajira,
Magdalena, Atlantico and Los
Santanderes.
The end of the AUC means that
the government will now be able
to return 18,000 hectares of
land to local farmers as part of
agrarian reform plans.
On March 4, 250 North Bloc
paramilitaries handed in their
weapons in San Martin
municipality, and on March 7,
some 2,215 handed in their
weapons in Chimila, a town in
Cesar department.
Tovar had been accused of drug
trafficking and several
killings. Prior to joining the
AUC to fight against the
guerillas, he had worked at Club
Valledupar, one of Cesar's top
private education institutions,
owned a large cereal farm, and
held a post as a public
official.
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