Casanare: A war story
The war in Casanare began about mid-1986, when Hector Buitrago, organized a paramilitary group known in the region as “the Buitragueños” to fight guerrillas. The group landed in Casanare, Meta and part of Ariari subregion, which irked Pirabán Manuel de Jesus, aka ‘Pirate’, and Pedro Oliverio Guerrero, alias “Cuchillo” of the Centaurs Bloc.
One villager knowledgeable of the Buitragueños expansion, said that Buitrago joined with the Ramirez and Feliciano families, both owners of large tracts of land, began setting up cocaine processing labs in Monterrey and Tauramena Aguazul. But they also began murdering people by the. At that time cattle ranchers, large supporters of the AUC for protection of their grazing lands, gave the paramilitaries ranches from which to mount military operations.But more than engage in counterinsurgency against the guerrillas, the Buitrago fighters intimidated and forced entire villages complicit to cover up drug trafficking activities.
“They collected people in the parks, locked down students in their classes, and told people not to leave their houses because of alleged danger and subversive guerrilla activity, but the fact is they wanted people ‘locked away’ so they wouldn’t see truckloads loaded with paramilitaries or with chemicals to process cocaine. It was all a big lie because the guerrilla presence wasn’t seen in Monterrey,” said a former Casanare municipal official.
The Buitragueños did not limit themselves to fabricating guerrilla threats. After 1995 they began a systematic campaign to seize land with oil fields or to evict farmers from areas in exploration areas. “From Monterrey to Tauramena and Aguazul, they came to farms and cattle ranches, once with scripture references and names of others. ‘Sign or die’, they said to landowners regarding deeds and titles. Threats, or worse, were also offered to girls who did not succumb to advances. they were raped or banished if they did not sleep with them,”says a person who lived in the area.
At the time, the prosecution and the judges of Villavicencio launched a conspiracy investigation against Buitrago, resulting in his incarceration. He later escaped from prison.
While Martin Llanos (Buitrago) consolidated power in the south and the north of Casanare with the Autodefensas Campesinas del Casanare (ACC), paramilitaries aligned with Carlos Castaño began to move into part of the Guaviare, Meta, Casanare and Araca. Castaño, a founder and former leader of the AUC who was later killed by his own men, along with Salvatore Mancuso and supported by members of the security forces came to the Casanare with members of the Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (ACCU) and killed over 50 people near Meta in 1997.
The slaughter was supported by the Self-Defense of Casanare. But soon a feud developed between the Martin Llanos group and the Casanare paramilitaries. This was deepened with the slaughter of 11 members of a judicial commission who were investigating a land dispute in October 1997. The massacre, ordered by Martin Llanos offended Carlos Castaño.
By this time, Castaño forces pushed into Casanare and Arauca, and clashes resulted with FARC and ELN guerrillas. The arrival of Castano’s men also produced divisions within the ACC amongst its southern and northern factions, the latter commanded by Luis Eduardo Ramirez Vargas, alias ‘HK’, who was later killed by police in Bogotá in December 2005.
War drives the clashing factions insane
With Castanos entrance into the area, Llanos began to feel threatened.
Ex fighters said Martín Llanos began to step up extortion, kill farmers to seize land, and exert political pressure remain in control of Casanare. “Llanos was going crazy. He did not allow anyone to within 30 feet of him, and if he suspected someone would turn him, they would be tortured and later assassinated. Several youths were killed and returned to their families in black plastic bags. Dozens of his men were executed like this in Puerto Lopez, on mere suspicion,” said residents of Puerto Lopez, who saw the corpses.
Llanos’ paranoia drove him to kill people close to him, such as Victor Feliciano Alfonso along with his wife Martha Nelly Chavez, and Juan Manuel Feliciano Chaves and four others in February, 2000. Only Victor Francisco Feliciano was left alive, who denied family ties to drug trafficking.
Llanos began to lose control of the northern department, especially Yopal, where the population was caught in the midst of war.
An all-out war without truce ensued in April, 2001 which drew about 15,000 people out to protest about the lapse in security. That day traders, farmers, civilians and politicians shook their fear and called for and end to violence under banners saying: “Our silence is filling the graves of the plains of Casanareño.
The fighting intensified and to the point that 10 people per week were killed. However the police recorded that, in the first quarter of 2001, there were only 85 murders. Official statistics showed deep differences with the reports of the Ombudsman, according to whom, between 1997 and the first three months of 2001, there were 31 massacres, of which 12 were in Yopal during the first months of 2001.
In 2001, 2,404 farmers were displaced. Still, authorities described Casanare as “a haven of peace.”
In April 2001 Llanos also called forced meetings of ordinary citizens,from taxi drivers to teachers, to use them for his own gains. In one meeting 200 teachers arrived near Monterey, where the paramilitary leader declared: “Those who vote for the Democratic candidate or for Horacio Serpa, should assume the consequences,” said a teacher who attended the meeting and is now a refugee in Villavicencio.
More:
http://colombiapassport.com/2009/12/17/the-untold-casanare-war/#more-1943
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