Colombia police capture alleged ‘chief’ of Buenaventura dismemberment ‘chop-houses’

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia police capture alleged ‘chief’ of Buenaventura dismemberment ‘chop-houses’
Jul 9, 2014 posted by Tim Hinchliffe



Authorities claim to have captured the head of a local criminal offshoot responsible for the notorious “chop houses” in Buenaventura, Colombia’s largest Pacific port city, reported national media Wednesday.

National Police General Rodolfo Palomino confirmed the capture of Orlando Cuervo Martinez, alias “Oreja,” in the western state of Tolima, several hours away from the coastal city of Buenaventura, where authorities have recently uncovered a series of abandoned houses in which Martinez allegedly ordered his enemies be dismembered, according to Colombia’s RCN Radio.

Martinez is believed to be the head of the criminal group, “La Empresa,” a drug-trafficking offshoot of the national neo-paramilitary group, “Los Rastrojos.” For years, La Empresa has been engaged in a gruesome gang war for control of Buenaventura that has produced thousands of forced displacements and casualties and plunged the city into one of the deepest human rights crises in the country.

According to Palomino, Martinez will be transferred to the capital, Bogota, to be charged with drug trafficking, murder, and extortion. The police chief claimed that Martinez’s capture would leave La Empresa leaderless and cripple the gang’s 200-person operation in Buenaventura, reported RCN.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombias-national-police-capture-chief-chop-houses-responsible-dismembering-victims/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia drug gangs cut up people alive in ‘chop-up houses' – HRW

Colombia drug gangs cut up people alive in ‘chop-up houses' – HRW

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:06 GMT
Author: Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - At night along the river banks of the Colombian port city of Buenaventura, residents say they can hear people scream and plea for mercy as they are cut up with chainsaws.

Gang members have been seen emerging from so-called “chop-up houses”, nestled in warrens of wooden shacks on stilts, carrying plastic bags with dismembered body parts that are thrown into the sea.

Fishermen say they have come across body parts floating in the waters of Colombia’s main port on the Pacific coast, an international shipping hub.

Buenaventura, home to 370,000 people, is a key smuggling point for cocaine being transported by sea and overland through Central America and Mexico en route to the United States, making it a hotspot for drug traffickers and criminal gangs and one of Colombia’s most violent cities.

More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20140321130623-3r9w4/

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombia: Disappearances Plague Major Port

Colombia: Disappearances Plague Major Port

Criminal Groups Terrorize Neighborhoods, Displace Thousands
March 20, 2014

(Bogotá) – Paramilitary successor groups have abducted and disappeared scores, and possibly hundreds, of residents of the largely Afro-Colombian port of Buenaventura, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today. Thousands of residents have been fleeing their homes in the city each year, making Buenaventura the municipality with the highest level of ongoing forced displacement in Colombia today.

The 30-page report, “The Crisis in Buenaventura: Disappearances, Dismemberment, and Displacement in Colombia’s Main Pacific Port,” documents how many of the city’s neighborhoods are dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea. The groups maintain “chop-up houses” (casas de pique) where they slaughter victims, according to witnesses, residents, the local Catholic church, and some officials.

“The situation in Buenaventura is among the very worst we’ve seen in many years of working in Colombia and the region,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Simply walking on the wrong street can get you abducted and dismembered, so it’s no surprise the residents are fleeing by the thousands.”

Paramilitary successor groups emerged in Buenaventura after the deeply flawed official demobilization of right-wing paramilitary organizations a decade ago. Currently, the Urabeños and the Empresa are the main successor groups operating in the port city. The groups restrict residents’ movement – attacking people if they cross invisible borders between areas controlled by rival factions – recruit children, extort businesses, and routinely engage in horrific acts of violence against anyone who defies their will.

More:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/20/colombia-disappearances-plague-major-port

[Judi Lynn]

3. HOUSES OF HORROR: Colombian drug gangs dismember witnesses alive in 'chop houses'

HOUSES OF HORROR: Colombian drug gangs dismember witnesses alive in 'chop houses'
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
3/24/2014

The screams of people being dismembered alive with chainsaws echo throughout the Colombian port city of Buenaventura. People who live here say they hear the cries late at night, as the local drug gangs exact their vengeance against those who dare to cross them.



LOS ANGELES,CA (Catholic online) - Local gangsters have been spotted leaving late at night from the "chop houses," which are warrens of wooden shacks on stilts, carrying plastic bags with dismembered body parts that are thrown then into the ocean.

With a population of roughly 370,000 people, Buenaventura is a key smuggling point for cocaine being transported by sea. The drugs are then trucked through Mexico into the United States. This grisly fact marks Buenaventura as one of Colombia's most violent cities.

Fishermen report coming across body parts floating in the waters of Colombia's main port on the Pacific coast.

The gangs here fight over control of Buenaventura's waterfront areas where the cocaine is stored and shipped, putting communities in the middle of drug turf wars.

"The chop-up houses do exist even though the government finds it hard to accept that they do," said a nun and women's rights leader says. "Women in our support group have heard the screams at night. They fear that their sons, daughters and husbands who've disappeared have been dismembered. People are too afraid to act."

More:
http://www.catholic.org/news/international/americas/story.php?id=54659

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombia 'Chopping Houses' Highlight Forced Disappearance Methods

Colombia 'Chopping Houses' Highlight Forced Disappearance Methods
Written by Marguerite Cawley
Thursday, 06 March 2014

The discovery of houses used by criminal groups in Colombia's Pacific port city of Buenaventura to mutilate the bodies of victims and then "disappear" them shines a light on a practice commonly used by organized crime to avoid bringing heat from security forces.

Valle del Cauca police commander Coronel Mariano Botero Coy said authorities had discovered five so-called "chopping houses" used by two criminal groups fighting for control in the area, the Urabeños and La Empresa, reported Caracol.

According to Botero, the perpetrators strap their victims to a table and use power saws and other cutting devices to dismember their victims while they are still alive, reported RCN.

The body parts of people who had disappeared in Buenaventura in 2013 began to appear last June. Between that month and October, authorities found the remains of eight people who had been murdered and chopped up, and their body parts put in bags weighed down with rocks that were then thrown out to sea.

In the 15 days leading up to March 5 this year, the remains of 12 more unidentified victims were found, with recent disappearances including three fishermen and a man who sold cell phone minutes, reported El Espectador. The reports regarding these houses of horror have led a specialized group from the Technical Investigation Team of the Prosecutor General's Office to come to the area to investigate, reported El Colombiano.

More:
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/colombia-chopping-house-discoveries-highlight-forced-disappearance-techniques.