Colombian army must publicly apologize for 'false positive' murder

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian army must publicly apologize for 'false positive' murder
Tuesday, 10 January 2012 08:16
Aylish O'Driscoll

~snip~
Around midnight on May 21, 1994, soldiers arrived at the house of 25-year-old Alfredo Sierra Castilla in the town of Nechi, in the northwestern Colombian department of Antioquia. Castillo answered the door wearing white shorts, his friends in the house heard the words "hands up", and he was taken away. The friends reported the incident to the town's police inspector and the commander of the local military base, but were told that Alfredo had not been arrested by the military.

On the same night in Nechi, soldiers arrived at the house of Jairo Antonio Calis Sajayo, who lived with his mother. According to testimony from his mother Rosario Sajayo, they took him at gunpoint, barefoot and wearing blue shorts and a yellow bag, while he begged "Do not kill me please, I have not done anything." Over the following days, Jairo's father and a neighbor visited the local battalion several times, each time being told his whereabouts were unknown.

Five days after the kidnappings, Lieutenant Jose Mauricio Sanabria filed a report saying the men had been killed in combat in Palomar, Antioquia. Their bodies were returned to the families wearing military uniforms over the clothes they were wearing the night of their kidnapping, with their bodies showing signs of torture.

The Administrative Tribunal of Antioquia, in the late 1990's, concluded that the young men had not been kidnapped, and accepted the conclusions offered by the investigations of the military justice system.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/21437-colombian-army-must-publicly-apologize-for-false-positive-murder.html

[gratuitous]

1. Oh, you Colombians! Always lookin' backwards to the past

You should be even more like the United States, and look forward to the future! Besides, the military thoroughly investigated these alleged incidents, and concluded conclusively that they didn't do nothin' wrong. The Administrative Tribunal agreed. So it's all done now. Over with. Finished. Quit lookin' backwards. Quit it NOW!

[Judi Lynn]

2. 'Colombian colonel exhumed corpses, dressed them as neo-paramilitaries'

'Colombian colonel exhumed corpses, dressed them as neo-paramilitaries'
Monday, 09 January 2012 07:49
Miriam Wells

A Colombian army colonel has been accused of murdering civilians and stealing corpses to simulate the successful killing of a leading neo-paramilitary.

Colombia's Prosecutor General says Colonel Oscar Orlando Gomez Cifuentes simulated a confrontation in November 2007 to falsely claim he had killed Dumar de Jesus Guerrero, alias "Carecuchillo," the brother of Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, alias "Cuchillo," leader of ERPAC and one of Colombia's most wanted drug lords.

According the investigation, the colonel ordered the digging up of two bodies from a cemetery in Cumaribo, in the western department of Vichada, and the killing of three other people, apparently street-dwellers. He then had them dressed as ERPAC militants and claimed Carecuchillo was one of those killed.

Carecuchillo, who was accused of taking part in the 1997 Mapiripan massacre in his former role as a senior AUC member, surrendered to the authorities the following year and is now in jail.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/21416-colombian-colonel-exhumed-corpses-and-dressed-them-as-neo-paramilitaries-prosecutor-.html