Pataz Massacre Suspect Filmed Drinking in a Colombian Prison
PERU · JUSTICE
Key Facts
- —The crime Thirteen mine security workers were killed in Pataz, northern Peru, in April 2025. The killings were filmed.
- —The accused Miguel Antonio Rodríguez Díaz, a former Peruvian soldier known as Cuchillo.
- —Where he is El Pedregal, a maximum-security prison in Colombia, waiting to be extradited.
- —What surfaced Video of him drinking and toasting with other inmates inside it.
- —What else is in the frame At least two mobile phones.
- —Why phones matter They are how an imprisoned boss keeps running an organisation.
A man accused of ordering thirteen murders is filmed raising a glass in a maximum-security prison. Two mobile phones sit on the table beside him.
Peruvian television has broadcast video of the man accused of ordering the Pataz massacre. He is drinking inside the Colombian prison where he awaits extradition.
What the Video Shows
The footage was broadcast by the Peruvian programme Panorama and picked up by Infobae Perú on 14 September.
It shows Miguel Antonio Rodríguez Díaz drinking and toasting with other prisoners.
At least two mobile phones are visible in the same frame. Phones are prohibited in a maximum-security facility, and they are the reason such rules exist.
The Peruvian security analyst Pedro Yaranga called it a breach of control and urged Peru to speed up the extradition.
Pataz
Pataz is a gold district in the highlands of La Libertad, in northern Peru.
Formal mining concessions there sit alongside informal and illegal operations, and control of the shaft entrances is what the violence is about.
In late April 2025, thirteen men working security for a mining company were killed.
The attack was filmed and the footage was circulated, which is what made it more than a massacre. It was a message to everyone else working in the district.
Prosecutors say Rodríguez Díaz ordered it rather than carried it out. He is a former officer of the Peruvian army.
How He Ended Up in Colombia
He was arrested in Medellín on 15 May 2025.
Peru obtained 36 months of preventive detention that month, and he has been held at El Pedregal in Antioquia since.
Extradition has not happened. Roughly a third of the detention period has already passed.
The case is Peruvian in substance and Colombian in location, which is part of why it moves slowly.
Why Extraditions Take This Long
Extradition runs through the courts of the country holding the prisoner, and then through a government decision.
Documentation, translation and appeals each add months, and none of that is unusual or improper.
What the video changes is the political temperature rather than the legal timetable.
For Peru, the practical worry is narrower. Witness protection and the security of the Pataz proceedings both assume the accused is cut off.
What a Phone Is Worth Inside
Running a criminal organisation from a cell needs two things, a way to give orders and a way to move money.
A mobile phone solves the first, and the second usually follows through people outside.
Prison authorities across the region block signals, seize handsets and lose the argument anyway. Phones arrive with visitors, with deliveries and with staff.
What makes this footage useful to Peruvian prosecutors is not the drink. It is the evidence that he can still reach the outside.
Two Men, One Nickname
Colombia had its own Cuchillo, and he is a different person entirely.
Pedro Oliverio Guerrero Castillo led a paramilitary trafficking group and was killed in 2010.
His archive photographs come up readily in searches, which has caused confusion in coverage of this case.
Neither the Colombian prison service nor the government has commented on the footage, and no date has been set for the extradition.
More: Peru news and analysis, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is in the video?
Miguel Antonio Rodríguez Díaz, a former Peruvian soldier held in Colombia awaiting extradition.
What is he accused of?
Ordering the Pataz massacre of April 2025, in which 13 mine security workers were killed.
Where is he held?
El Pedregal prison in Antioquia, Colombia, after his arrest in Medellín in May 2025.
What does the video show?
Him drinking and toasting with other inmates, with at least two mobile phones visible.
Has he been extradited?
No. Extradition to Peru is still pending.
What was the Pataz massacre?
The killing of 13 mine security workers in a gold district in northern Peru. The attack was filmed.
Sources: Panorama, Infobae Perú, Diario Correo.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief