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Colombian Cop Who Exposed Police Male Prostitution Ring Found Alive After Kidnapping

Captain Ányelo Palacios claims he was one of roughly 300 police cadets coerced into the sex network. He is a key witness in the scandal that has led to the resignation of the country's deputy interior minister and the director of the national police.
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A Colombian police officer who blew the lid on a male prostitution scandal within the institution was found alive on Sunday night, the day after he was abducted.

Captain Ányelo Palacios is a key witness in the scandal that continues to embarrass both the police and politicians, and has already led to some important resignations.

On Monday morning, national police chief General Jorge Hernando Nieto told reporters that the Palacios' family received a call in the early hours of the day saying that he had escaped his captors, and that he was in good health aside from the hypothermia.

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"We are investigating in order to find out the motive behind the facts," Nieto said. "We are not ruling anything out."

Palacio was kidnapped on Saturday evening in the northeastern province of Santander while he was driving with his stepfather, Arcilio Ortíz Valero. Ortiz told reporters that four armed men on two motorcycles overtook their car, before doubling back to abduct the whistleblower. He said that the gunmen instructed him to get out of the vehicle, and that his stepson would be returned within an hour. When that did not happen, he called the authorities.

Palacios shot to the center of an investigation into an alleged male prostitution network within the police last month when a Colombian radio station and website called La F.M. published a video he had secretly filmed in 2008 of a conversation he had with then-Senator Carlos Ferro in which they discuss plans to have sex. Though Palacios cannot be seen in the video, the voices appear to match. There is no mention of coercion or prostitution.

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Palacios told prosecutors that he had been recruited into a group within Colombia's police created to satisfy the sexual desires of the top brass, as well as those of elected officials. He gave the names of a number of senior officers in his testimony.

He claims that he was drugged and raped when he was a cadet at Colombia's largest police academy by Colonel Jerson Jair Castellanos, who was chief of security for Congress at the time. He also alleges that Castellanos promised promotions and career favors in order to get the cadets to comply.

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Palacios, and at at least five other witnesses, claim that over 300 cadets were coerced into the prostitution network, which is being referred to as "The Fellowship of the Ring" by the Colombian media.

The publication of Palacios' video last month triggered a slew of high-profile resignations.

Carlos Ferro, at the time serving as Interior Deputy Minister, walked, as did General Rodolfo Palomino, the Director of National Police. Palomino himself had long been battling sexual harassment allegations, but maintained his innocence.

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One of Colombia's most famous journalists, Vicky Dávila, who broke the story, also resigned following pressure from her bosses, sparking a fierce debate about press freedom in the country and whether the police are off-limits to journalists.

Before the scandal broke, Dávila and a number of other journalists claim to have been wiretapped by police officers looking to smother the story. Some, however, argue that the video contains no proof of anything illegal, and its publication is consequently not in the public interest.

After his kidnapping and apparent release Palacios' mother spoke to the media, saying that her son "was in a bad state," and had been beaten.

Razia Palacios, the sister of the whistleblower, told local media that her brother had received threats leading up to his abduction. "They called him and said: 'choose a color: black, white or brown," she said, explaining that the callers were referring to the color of his tombstone.

On the other side of the divide, at least one leading local newspaper, El Tiempo, speculated that the police captain may have kidnapped himself.

The scandal is likely to rumble on for some time still, with investigators only beginning to look closely at Palacios' allegations.

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Follow Joe Parkin Daniels on Twitter: @joeparkdan