Colombian cycling nice Luis Alberto “Lucho” Herrera has denied allegations made by an ex-paramilitary fighter that the 1987 Spanish Vuelta champion was concerned within the slayings of 4 farmers 23 years in the past.
A decide requested the prosecutors’ workplace to analyze if Herrera requested two paramilitaries in 2002 to kill the farmers, who had been his neighbours in Fusagasugá, a city situated 70 kilometres south of Bogotá.
“I’ve by no means belonged to legal organisations nor have I ever meant to trigger hurt to anybody,” the 63-year-old Herrera mentioned in a press release.
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“I’ve devoted my life to sport, and after my retirement from skilled biking, to working truthfully.”
Herrera, one among his era’s greatest climbers, grew to become the primary Colombian to win the Spanish Vuelta and has been a task mannequin for different distinguished cyclists resembling Nairo Quintana.
The allegations grew to become public Monday after an investigation by native channel Noticias Uno revealed the sentencing of two convicted paramilitary fighters who admitted killing the farmers.
Luis Alberto “Lucho” Herrera. Provided
Luis Fernando Gómez, alias “Ojitos,” claimed that he met with Herrera to obtain directions earlier than committing the crime. He mentioned Herrera gave them pictures of the farmers, claiming they had been leftist guerrillas, together with an envelope containing cash to purchase weapons and a bike. He added that after committing the crime, he realised the farmers weren’t guerrillas, however that they’d refused to promote land to Herrera.
The opposite paramilitary, recognized as Óscar Andrés Huertas, alias “Menudencias,” mentioned that after the homicide, they buried the our bodies on a farm.
“We slit their throats after which dismembered them with a machete,” Huertas said in his account, in response to excerpts from the launched verdict.
A decide sentenced each of the lads to 22 years in jail.
Paramilitary teams emerged in Colombia within the Seventies to fight leftist guerrillas and continued to thrive till the early 2000s.
Herrera said that he was knowledgeable of the decide’s resolution to order an investigation by means of the press and rejected with “absolute power” the accusations that “search to tarnish my title and my profession”.
He additionally mentioned that he doesn’t know the 2 paramilitaries.
“I can be keen to make public statements as soon as I do know concretely and exactly the costs towards me by individuals I have no idea and I can show my full innocence,” Herrera mentioned.
