Paramilitary compensated for massacre he committed: Prosecutors

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

Paramilitary compensated for massacre he committed: Prosecutors
Friday, 28 October 2011 10:55
Sarah Cast

A demobilized paramilitary convicted for his role in the massacre of 59 people in north Colombia was registered as a victim in the same massacre, allowing his family to claim compensation, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

According to Caracol Radio, prosecutors are investigating five individuals who the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) determined were victims of the "El Salado" massacre but are not accredited as victims in the Colombian courts.

~snip~
Victims were taken from their homes by the paramilitaries and dragged to a local football field, where they were publicly tortured before being hung, beaten, stabbed, and shot to death.

An estimated 400 paramilitary fighters are believed to have committed the massacre, but Salcedo is among the very few that have been convicted.



Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/20020-convicted-paramilitary-received-victims-compensation-for-own-massacre-prosecutors.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. More background on the massacre at El Salado, Colombia:

Colombians Tell of Massacre, as Army Stood By
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: July 14, 2000

The armed men, more than 300 of them, marched into this tiny village early on a Friday. They went straight to the basketball court that doubles as the main square, residents said, announced themselves as members of Colombia's most feared right-wing paramilitary group, and with a list of names began summoning residents for judgment.

A table and chairs were taken from a house, and after the death squad leader had made himself comfortable, the basketball court was turned into a court of execution, villagers said. The paramilitary troops ordered liquor and music, and then embarked on a calculated rampage of torture, rape and killing.

''To them, it was like a big party,'' said one of a dozen survivors who described the scene in interviews this month. ''They drank and danced and cheered as they butchered us like hogs.''

By the time they left, late the following Sunday afternoon, they had killed at least 36 people whom they accused of collaborating with the enemy, left-wing guerrillas who have long been a presence in the area. The victims, for the most part, were men, but others ranged from a 6-year-old girl to an elderly woman. As music blared, some of the victims were shot after being tortured; others were stabbed or beaten to death, and several more were strangled.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/14/world/colombians-tell-of-massacre-as-army-stood-by.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

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Conspiracy of Silence?

Colombia, the United States and the Massacre at El Salado

Declassified Documents Highlight U.S. Concerns Over Role of Colombian Security Forces in February 2000 Paramilitary Killings

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 287

Posted - September 24, 2009

Washington, D.C., September 24, 2009 - The United States harbored serious concerns about the potential involvement of Colombian security forces in the February 2000 massacre at El Salado, an attack that occurred while the two countries were hammering out the final details of the massive military aid package known as Plan Colombia, according to declassified documents posted today on the National Security Archive Web site.

Orchestrated and carried out by paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an illegal paramilitary army, there have long been allegations that Colombian security forces, including those from the Colombian Navy's 1st Marine Infantry Brigade, facilitated the massacre by vacating the town before the carnage began and constructing roadblocks to delay the arrival of humanitarian aid. U.S. assistance under Plan Colombia required the Colombian military to demonstrate progress in breaking ties with paramilitary forces.

The documents described in the article below—and in Spanish on the Web site of Semana (Colombia's leading news magazine)—show that U.S. officials had significant doubts about the credibility of their Colombian military counterparts and were well aware, even before El Salado, of the propensity of the Colombian military to act in concert with illegal paramilitary forces, whether through omission or commission.

These findings also complement those of Memoria Histórica, an independent group charged by Colombia's National Commission on Reparations and Reconciliation with investigating the history of the country's armed conflict. Its report on El Salado, La Masacre de El Salado: Esa Guerra No Era Nuestra (The El Salado Massacre: That Was Not Our War), was released this week before audiences in El Salado and Bogotá.

More:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB287/index.htm

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From last July:
Colombia’s president apologizes to families of victims of 2000 massacre by paramilitaries
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4912060#4912253