David Melo, lawyer for 36 people from the village of Alto Remanso.
Bogotá, April 15, 2022Juan Carlos Zapata (EL PAÍS)
The Army operation in Putumayo that left 11 people dead, including several civilians, is a bloody reflection of the weak points of the peace agreement between the State and the extinct FARC guerrilla that for years excited Colombia.
The story of the massacre in Alto Remanso (Putumayo), which has been in the national debate for three weeks now, condenses the resurgence and growth of FARC dissidents, the decline in confidence in the military forces -which have once again brought to memory the false positives—and the unfulfilled promises of the State to coca growers who tried to substitute their illicit crops.
Since the military incursion occurred on March 28 during a bazaar —a popular community festival—, the government has insisted that all the dead were "narcocaleros" and "dissidents" and that the operation "was not in a bazaar, but against criminals who attacked soldiers”;
while the residents of that border region with Ecuador and national and international human rights organizations claim that among the dead there are civilians recognized by the community.
The Army sought to capture alias
Bruno,
from the so-called Bolivarian Border Commands, but was unsuccessful.
In their place were a pregnant woman, an indigenous governor and a minor dead.
The UN said that they had verified that there was indeed a bazaar and that "firearms would have been used, while 30 to 50 people were in the bazaar, including children and women."
Four of the eleven people murdered on March 28 in the village of Alto Remanso.
The president of the Community Action Board, Divier Hernández and his wife, Ana María Sarrias, the indigenous governor, Pablo Panduro Coquinche, and the minor, Brayan Santiago Pama. Family archive
David Melo Cruz, legal adviser to the Putumayo Agrarian and Environmental Cocalero Peasant Movement (Moviccaap) and the Leadership and Peace Foundation and lawyer for 36 people from Alto Remanso, has a theory about what happened and affirms that there are more deaths.
For him, who defends three relatives of the dead, two of the wounded and people who claim to have been held by the Army that day, everything would have been a confusion.
“The vice president of the Community Action Board of the village is physically very similar to alias Bruno,” he says.
One day after the operation, Melo and Iván Narváez, another Foundation lawyer, arrived at the village and collected testimonies.
They then hired private investigators to collect evidence.
Ask.
Almost three weeks have passed since the event.
What conclusion have you reached about what happened?
Response.
It was established that there really was a bazaar that had started on Saturday and ended on Monday because the final of a soccer championship was being played.
That is a true fact.
People who had already finished the championship went back to their sidewalks and on Monday there were about 250 waiting for the final, having drinks or waiting for food.
There are testimonies that some people were making a breakfast to sell to those present and were locked up by the Army in the community kitchen.
We believe that intelligence confused alias Bruno with the vice president of the communal action board, who is physically very similar, as he himself related to the Prosecutor's Office;
and also that, seeing some armed men in the bazaar, the Army activates the weapons.
Q.
How would that confusion end in so many deaths?
R.
My theory is that there was a search record given by a prosecutor and for that the Army had to cordon off the area and thus capture alias Bruno.
In the middle there was a community bazaar, not a meeting to collect coca, as the Army says.
Perhaps the lord was, but not at that time.
We cannot cover the sun with a finger and say that it was only a civilian population.
There could also have been people from the GAOR (Residual Organized Armed Group, as the Government calls them), but not in the number that the Army or Defense Minister Diego Molano says, who affirms that they were the 11. We believe that , to kill an armed person and mistaking the vice president as if he were Bruno, the Army activated the weapons.
P.
According to your version, how was the chronology of the events?
R.
On the morning of Monday, March 28, some men arrive at the community kitchen in camouflaged pants and a black sweatshirt.
They lock up the cooks and tell them where the guerrillas are.
Those are the stories we have collected.
After that three shots are heard.
We have tried to establish if they went towards a person who was dressed in red and who was close to the sniper.
From there some bursts of the Army come and it remains to be established if there was a confrontation.
Seeing this, people run from the booth —the place where they were sharing— to the river to flee from what was happening.
Thus, when trying to safeguard his life, the indigenous governor falls on the court;
Mr. Óscar Oliva;
the president of the Community Action Board, Divier Hernández and his wife, Ana María Sarrias.
P.
The Government says that everyone was part of the armed group.
But you maintain that you were civilians...
R.
Of the 11 dead, I have 3 powers of attorney from the murdered people: Governor Pablo Panduro, and Messrs. Óscar Oliva and José Peña Otaya.
Of the three, it can be established that they are not members of the armed group.
The intelligence report that assures that some were in a combat position and others collaborated with the armed group was not presented to the Prosecutor's Office in a timely manner before the events so that this body, as the accusing entity, would open an investigation and, if necessary, issue a capture order.
So, what the Army is doing now is wanting to disguise well-known civilians as if they were from an armed structure.
I reiterate, neither they nor the two wounded that I represent belonged to any group.
P.
In the case of the governor, the Army disclosed a file in which he says that he received information from a demobilized person but admits that this interview is not signed
R.
Those tests are not valid.
In order to reasonably infer the co-authorship and participation of a person in an armed group or in any crime, they must have material evidence before a judge, with sworn statements, eyewitnesses and hearsay witnesses, and each one must have credibility.
When that general (Juan Carlos Correa, commander of the Aviation and Air Assault Division of the National Army) establishes that there is an interview and it is not signed, there is no validity, because the person must attest.
In this case, the relevance of the evidence and the technical form in which it has been collected is not feasible to bring to justice.
General Juan Carlos Correa, commander of the Air Assault Aviation division of the Colombian National Army, speaks during a press conference to clarify the events that took place during an operation in Putumayo.
Bogotá, April 6, 2022Carlos Ortega (EFE)
Q.
You hired some private investigators, what findings did they produce?
R.
The team that we hired from a forensic, an expert in ballistics (according to the lawyer, with the resources provided by the peasants of the cocalero movement) have made progress in knowing where the shots were fired from.
We established, for example, that it was the Army that fired first;
that the helicopter that arrived also acted on the school and that of the wounded for whom I am a proxy, none was presented before a constitutional judge to hold a hearing to legalize their arrest.
The Government reported it, but the Prosecutor's Office denied them.
Q.
Several photographs show manipulation of the bodies.
What have you found?
R.
That will have to be established by the Prosecutor's Office.
But there are issues to be established: if the events occurred between 6:45 am and 8:10 am, why did (the Army) notify the Prosecutor's Office about 2:30 in the afternoon?
What happened in that time?
We do not know for sure, but through interviews with witnesses we see shortcomings in the plan that the Army carried out on the bodies in that period of time.
Q.
Why do you say that there are missing persons and more deaths from that day?
R.
From the testimonies collected we can establish that there are two missing persons, a man and his 8-year-old son.
We are trying to establish communication with their relatives, the indigenous guard is also trying to locate them.
This is because they tell us that there were people who threw themselves wounded into the Putumayo River.
There are also testimonies that indicate that there were not 11 dead but 13. We were already able to establish the two new names, but we are verifying if these people were there, if it is true that the helicopter took them, as the community denounces.
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