Álvaro Alfonso García Romero (

Ovejas Ovejas is a town and municipality located in the Sucre Department, northern Colombia where the traditional Cumbia (also called Gaita) festival "Francisco Llirene" takes place in October. Songwriter Graciela Arango de Tobón was born in Ovejas. ...

, February 19, 1951) is a Colombian politician who was a member of the Colombia Democratic Party, and was elected by popular vote to join the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the

House of Representatives of Colombia A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

. He was captured on November 18, 2007 within the scandal known as parapolitics, and sentenced in 2010 to 40 years in prison for diverting public funds to form far-right paramilitary groups and for being the indirect author, according to sentence with file 32805 of February 23, 2010 of the Supreme Court, of the Massacre of 15 people in Macayepo.

Biography

Álvaro García was born in

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

, and grew up on his family's cattle and agriculture farms. His family is originally from Carmen de Bolívar.

Macayepo massacre

On May 18, 2002, in a debate in Congress on paramilitary politics, Senator

Gustavo Petro Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (; born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian politician who is the 34th and current president of Colombia since 2022. Upon inauguration, he became the Pink tide, first left-wing president in the History of Colombia, recen ...

showed documentary and audio evidence that indicated García Romero had ties to

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

groups in Sucre and was involved in the Macayepo massacre, a mass murder carried out on October 16, 2000 by the illegal far-right armed organization known as the

United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (''Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia'', or AUC, in Spanish) were a Colombian far-right paramilitary and drug trafficking group which was an active belligerent in the Colombian armed conflict during the ...

(AUC) in the Macayepo district, in the jurisdiction of Carmen de Bolívar in the department of Bolívar in northern Colombia, where 15 peasants were murdered with machetes, sticks and rocks and nearly 246 families were displaced from their territory. Senator García went to the lectern and loudly called Petro a “clown,” denying the accusations. His case was now being investigated by the Supreme Court of Justice. In February 2010, García Romero was found responsible for being the intellectual author of the massacre and other events related to paramilitarism, such as the murder of San Onofre teacher Georgina Narváez, who had denounced electoral fraud in the department of Sucre. García was sentenced to 40 years in prison. On February 25, 2021, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) accepted García into its jurisdiction but expelled him in 2022 due to his refusal to acknowledge his participation in the events for which he was convicted.

Political career

García stood out in controversial acts in Congress such as the one that took place in 1988: García was a representative to the House and was the protagonist of a trap to benefit the country's landowners. and prevent the implementation of President Virgilio Barco's agrarian reform. Each parliamentarian could vote only once and television cameras captured the moment when García put his hand in the ballot box and deposited several blank ballots. Despite the fact that there were more votes than congressmen, the 'mico' was approved.

Congressman from Colombia

In the 1978 Colombian legislative elections, García Romero was elected to the Colombian House of Representatives with a total of 27,639 votes and re-elected for three consecutive terms. In the 1998 Colombian legislative elections, García Romero was elected Senator of the Republic of Colombia with a total of 45,475 votes. Re-elected again in the 2002 Colombian legislative elections, García Romero was elected Senator of the Republic of Colombia with a total of 70,662 votes. Then in the 2006 Colombian legislative elections, García Romero was re-elected Senator with a total of 55,573 votes. * Proposes some amendments to the current legislation on the protection of the rights of authors, composers and performers of musical works (Archived).

Political parties

Throughout his career he has represented the following parties:

Public offices

Among the public offices held by Alvaro Alfonso Garcia Romero, the following are identified:

References

{{Reflist People convicted of crimes against humanity Democratic Colombia Party politicians Politicians convicted of crimes 1951 births Living people