Colombia’s state council condemns the state for its role in death squad murder
Colombia’s state council condemns the state for its role in death squad murder
posted by Johnny Crisp
Jun 21, 2013
The Ministry of Defense and the National Police have been ordered to pay close to $250, 000 in compensation to the family of the murder victim of an infamous death squad known as “the 12 apostles” after a state council ruling was delivered on Thursday.
The murder in question took place in 1993, in the Yarumal municipality of northern department, Antioquia, and, according to the ruling; government authorities were implicit in aiding the paramilitary death group in their actions of “social cleansing.” The victim in this case was a drug addict.
There have long been voices claiming links between the notorious paramilitary activities and members of the government; critics have even suggested that former President Alvaro Uribe and his brother were implicated in the creation and maintaining of the “12 apostles” group.
While the state council’s report laments the fact that there is not enough evidence to condemn any one person for the murder nor invoke a penal process , citing the “incompetence” of the investigative and accusatory institutions in charge of the case, the ruling states that “several testimonies” agree the existence of the group which “in association with members of the Police, and financed by prestigious businessmen from the municipality, dedicated themselves to the displacement- or in the worst cases, the extermination- of people… considered undesirable in society.”
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombias-state-council-condemns-the-state-for-its-role-in-death-squad-murder/
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Related:
‘Uribe’s brother led paramilitary death squad’
posted by Adriaan Alsema
May 24, 2010
Santiago Uribe
The younger brother of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe led a paramilitary death squad in the early 1990s, a former police major told U.S. newspaper the Washington Post.
According to former official Juan Carlos Meneses, Santiago Uribe led the local paramilitary group in Yarumal, where the Uribe family had a business. The group allegedly killed petty thieves, and suspected guerrillas and their sympathizers.
Meneses claims that the president’s brother was the main fundraiser and strategist behind the “12 Apostles,” a group of prominent citizens that led a number of hitmen. According to Meneses, he attended meetings with the group in which it was decided who was going to be killed. The former police commander’s role was to make sure no authorities would be present at the time of the murder.
“First, it was drug addicts and small-time criminals winding up dead. Then, there were more and more and more dead,” an anonymous former town official told the newspaper.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/uribes-brother-lead-paramilitary-death-squad/
