Arrest warrant for ex-security chief

Bogota, Colombia (AP):

Colombian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant yesterday for a 73-year-old former domestic security chief who they say participated in the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan.

Retired General Miguel Maza Marquez has been charged with aggravated homicide for allegedly allying himself with the drug traffickers whose hired guns killed Galan, said German Gomez, spokesman for Colombia's chief prosecutor. The DAS domestic security agency that Maza Marquez led provides bodyguards for politicians, human rights activists and others. Prosecutors say the general intentionally lightened Galan's bodyguard contingent to enable the August 18, 1989 assassination.

Galan's 1989 presidential campaign was a crusade against Pablo Escobar and other cocaine lords who terrorised Colombia, killing hundreds of judges, journalists and police in a bid to avoid extradition.