Colombia stunned by lawmaker’s alleged betrayal

BOGOTA, Colombia — Even Colombians accustomed to treachery and deceit after more than a half-century of civil conflict and drug-related violence were stunned by the arrest of a one-time provincial lawmaker for allegedly helping plan the mass kidnapping of 11 colleagues later slain by leftist rebels.

In this Feb. 5, 2009 file photo, freed hostage Sigifredo Lopez, former provincial lawmaker, celebrates his release from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after being seized in 2002 in Cali, Colombia. Authorities arrested Lopez in May 2012 for allegedly telling rebels in detail how to kidnap his fellow lawmakers. All of the 11 other lawmakers were executed by the rebels five years later under circumstances that remain unclear. AP FILE PHOTO

Even more remarkable, the alleged traitor was among the kidnapped, and “miraculously” survived seven years later when the others were killed in murky circumstances.

“I can’t get it in my head that this could actually have been possible,” Interior Minister Federico Renjifo said upon hearing of last week’s arrest of Sigifredo Lopez. “I can only hold out the hope, as a human being, that this doesn’t turn out to be true.”

Plenty of Colombians, including relatives of the slain deputies, are perplexed by the arrest of Lopez on suspicion of murder, hostage-taking, perfidy and rebellion in connection with events that began on April 11, 2002, when guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia disguised as soldiers slipped into the state Assembly building in Cali, the Andean nation’s No. 3 city, and rounded up the deputies, killing a police officer.

Prosecutors have not yet offered a possible motive for the ex-lawmaker’s arrest, prompting speculation that the 49-year-old Lopez, released by the FARC in 2009, was somehow double-crossed by the rebels.