The Santa Fe de Ralito Pact was a joint document issued by leaders of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) and prominent politicians at a meeting in Santa Fe de Ralito. Calling for the “refounding of the country,” it gave political form to an alliance between an armed organization and elected officials, as the AUC’s territorial power extended into the electoral process.

Background and Participants

The AUC emerged from the expansion of right-wing paramilitary groups formed in response to violence by left-wing guerrillas. In 1981, after the FARC kidnapped and killed their father, Carlos, Fidel, and Vicente Castaño founded Los Tangueros to pursue the guerrilla group. Their organization grew alongside similar groups, which landowners also used for protection; paramilitaries were meanwhile involved in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and murder.

By 1997, groups under the Castaño brothers’ leadership had formed a national paramilitary organization, the AUC. It expanded across large parts of Colombia, particularly in the departments of Córdoba, Sucre, Magdalena, and César. By 2001, it may have commanded as many as 30,000 armed men, organized into separate blocks. In Córdoba, the Bloque Catatumbo was led by Salvatore Mancuso.

The Pact and Political Alliance

As its power grew, the AUC made a strategic decision to enter politics. Paramilitary leaders and politicians began courting one another, and several AUC leaders organized a meeting with prominent politicians in the town of Santa Fe de Ralito, in Córdoba. The participants issued and signed a joint document calling for the “refounding of the country.”

Among the AUC signatories were “Jorge 40,” the nickname of Rodrigo Tovar Pupo; Adolfo Paz, a nom de guerre used by Diego Fernando “Don Berna” Murillo; and Diego Vecino, the alias of Edwar Cobo Téllez. Politicians who signed included national senators William Montes and Miguel de la Espriella. The pact therefore joined paramilitary commanders and national political figures in a shared political initiative.

Territorial Power and Electoral Pressure

By the time of the pact, the AUC controlled extensive areas of Colombia. Its reach could be translated into pressure on electoral outcomes: in the 2002 congressional and Senate elections, paramilitaries could determine who was elected in places where they held sway.

In the municipality of San Onofre, in Sucre, the paramilitary leader Cadena arranged the election. An eyewitness account described trucks sent by Cadena collecting people from neighborhoods, rural areas, and corregimientos, and taking hundreds of peasants to Plan Parejo to see the candidates they were expected to support: Jairo Merlano for the Senate and Muriel Benito Rebollo for Congress. The account also described Cadena placing the names of municipal council members in a bag, drawing two, and threatening to kill them and others chosen at random if Rebollo did not win. The episode shows the gulf between electoral institutions on paper and the coercive power shaping voters’ choices on the ground.

Significance

The pact’s significance lies in the connection it embodied between armed territorial control and formal politics. The AUC did not only exercise power through its armed organization; it sought a political role and made common cause with politicians. In this account, the pact and the 2002 election illustrate how paramilitary influence could extend from controlling territory to shaping representation and electoral outcomes. The stated call to refound the country thus accompanied an alliance operating within, and exerting pressure on, Colombia’s political system.