Las2orillas[1], October 21, 2021
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has allowed Jaime Blanco Maya to be released from custody. Blanco is the owner of a food service company that did business with the North American multinational mining company, Drummond. Drummond landed in César Department in the middle of the ‘80’s to exploit coal deposits in La Loma and La Jagua in Ibirico. Blanco, who also was the brother of the former Inspector General, Edgardo Maya, was one of the 13 business owners accepted by the JEP in November 2020 to explain the murders of Valmore Locarno Rodríguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya, both labor leaders at Drummond. It was for that crime that Blanco was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
Jaime Blanco blew the whistle on the relationship between high-ranking executives at Drummond and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. In addition, he had revealed how the North American, James Atkins, chief of security at the mining company, had hired paramilitaries for his security system. Jaime Blanco’s testimony is fundamental for the JEP’s next step, to go after the Directors of Drummond. Besides that, his release from custody opens a door so that business owners who financed the paramilitaries could fit in as third parties in the transitional system by submitting to the JEP.
[1] “Las2orillas” (The Two Borders). “Las2orillas” is an independent investigation and news site. https://www.las2orillas.co