A special tribunal in Colombia handling cases from the country’s armed conflict sentenced Salvatore Mancuso, a former top commander of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), to 40 years in prison. The tribunal found that AUC members under his command committed more than 100 crimes in La Guajira province from 2002 to 2006, including murders and forced disappearances. Mancuso, 61, was returned to Colombia in 2024 after serving a 15-year US prison sentence for drug trafficking. The tribunal said the 40-year sentence could be reduced to eight years if he cooperates with transitional justice and participates in reparation activities. The BBC notes that Colombia’s decades-long conflict killed at least 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018, according to a truth commission.