Army sergeant convicted of 'false positive' killing

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Army sergeant convicted of 'false positive' killing
Friday, 11 March 2011 07:53
Edward Fox

http://colombiareports.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/justice/luis_eduardo_mahecha.jpg

The former head of intelligence for an army battalion in Cali, Sergeant Luis Eduardo Mahecha, has been found guilty of the extrajudicial killing of a peasant who he later falsely claimed was a FARC guerrilla, El Espectador reports.

The prosecutor of the National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law unit (DIH) demonstrated that the victim, Jose Orlando Giraldo Becerra, who was killed March 11, 2006, had not died not because of clashes between security forces and the FARC but instead was a defenseless farmer who was executed.

Giraldo's brother was also killed three years later in what his family claims was an effort to silence him by the army to prevent him from testifying.

Agents from the Technical Investigation Team (CTI) added that the army battalion responsible had handled the crime scene so as to try and present it as a battle site and conceal any incriminating evidence. Seven military personnel were also convicted for their roles in the cover up.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14846-army-sergeant-convicted-over-false-positive.html

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Colombia has been the 3rd largest recipient of U.S. taxpayers' foreign aid for many years.

[alp227]

1. Colombia? I was thinking the Iraq War when reading this headline n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Judge reopens 2001 Chengue massacre case

Judge reopens 2001 Chengue massacre case
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 13:57
Marguerite Cawley

A Colombian judge rules that the 2001 paramilitary massacre of 31 civilians in the town of Chengue, north Colombia, was a "crime against humanity" and orders the decade-old case reopened.

The case regards the January 7, 2001 assassination of 31 civilians in Chengue, Sucre department, by 80 members of paramilitary coalition AUC's Heroes de Montes de Maria Front. The killings were part of "Operation Rastrillo," which also included the Macayepo and El Salado massacres.

The ruling by a prosecutor from the Human Rights Unit, who based the decision on principles of international humanitarian law, states that the crimes constitute a systematic attack directed at the extermination of a national community, according to an article in newspaper El Espectador. This criteria adheres to the definition of "crimes against humanity" given in the Rome Statute, the founding document of the International Criminal Court.

Based on this decision, the judge has asked a Sincelejo court to revise the original absolution of guilt for marine infantry officials Euclides Rafael Bossa and Ruben Dario Rojas, who were investigated for conspiring in the massacre.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14913-judge-reopens-2001-chengue-massacre-case.html