This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 006208 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
DRL FOR WALTERS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2015 
TAGS: PHUM PTER PGOV SNAR CO AUC
SUBJECT: MASS GRAVE EXHUMATION UNCOVERS GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS 
VIOLATIONS 
 
REF: 04 BOGOTA 10484 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood; reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. On June 22, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner 
hosted an international delegation visit to Sucre Department. 
 The group visited mass gravesites in San Onofre, met with 
victims' families and NGOs in Sincelejo, and spoke with local 
government and military officials about human rights 
concerns.  The interagency investigative team uncovering 
graves estimated that up to 200 bodies might be found in the 
exhumations.  San Onofre's Mayor claimed the worst was over, 
and criticized the GOC for attempting to keep the history of 
massacres and terror alive.  Several locals and NGOs reported 
that officials failed to respond to complaints or protect 
vulnerable populations.  The Catholic Church Bishop for Sucre 
agreed, saying the area remained dangerous and that 
criticizing the drug trade could get one killed in Sucre. 
Sincelejo's Acting Naval Commander Salcedo painted a more 
positive outlook but admitted they still did not enjoy the 
confidence of the population.  End summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The "Montes de Maria" region on the Caribbean coast, 
which crosses Sucre and Bolivar departments, has 
traditionally been a rural, cattle-farming area.  Beginning 
in the late 1970s, the mountains became a refuge and then an 
operating base for several guerrilla groups including the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National 
Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN), and the Popular Liberation 
Army (ELP).  In the late 1990s, the United Self-Defense 
Forces (AUC) established a presence in the areas around the 
mountains.  Local Navy officials estimate that almost 1,000 
active terrorists live in the northern third of Sucre alone. 
Northern Sucre has three major ports that offer illegal armed 
groups access points to transport supplies and drugs. 
 
Paramilitary Mass Graves Uncovered 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) On June 22, the Office of the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Human Rights led an international delegation 
composed of one representative from the British, Austrian, 
and U.S. embassies to Sucre Department to discuss human 
rights concerns.  Since early March, San Onofre municipality, 
in northern Sucre made news with the findings of mass graves 
and evidence of gross human rights violations perpetrated by 
the "Heroes of Montes de Maria," a local paramilitary bloc 
under the command of Eduardo Cortes Trellez ("Diego Vecino") 
and his deputy, Rodrigo Antonio Mercado Pelufo ("Rodrigo 
Cadena").  Both leaders are currently in Rialto, Cordoba 
Department participating in the United Self-Defense Forces of 
Colombia (AUC) peace negotiations with the Colombian 
government. 
 
¶4. (C) Exhumation team leader Maria Rocio Cortes, from the 
Cartagena Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia), briefed the 
group on the history of the GOC investigation.  She noted 
that, although locals claim they had known of paramilitary 
torture and murder for years, the government first received 
the information in a police statement in late February.  A 
fifteen-person interagency team made up of the Prosecutor 
General's office, the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), 
forensic experts and a human rights representative entered 
the area under Colombian military protection and began to 
uncover graves on March 7.  The AUC allegedly buried most of 
the bodies on El Palmar Ranch, seven kilometers away from 
Sucre's town hall.  The Fiscalia submitted the first criminal 
cases charging torture and murder on June 7 and is preparing 
more as the team locates and identifies remains.  Cortes said 
the AUC had taken El Palmar Ranch from the Revolutionary 
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1995 and had kept it to 
limit access to the gravesites and avoid a criminal 
investigation.  As of June 22, the team had located 68 
remains, 54 on El Palmar.  Cortes commented that she believed 
the area might have as many as 200 bodies buried on former 
AUC-controlled ranches.  Although most of the remains were 
buried four or five years ago, some were killed as recently 
as six to eight months ago. 
 
¶5. (C) CTI Representative Wilmar Baretto told the delegation 
that the team had security concerns and had difficulty 
locating some of the bodies.  He noted that the AUC's 
practices of hiding graves in the brush and dispersing them 
across a 200 square meter ranch had made the discovery 
process difficult.  He admitted that it would become 
increasingly challenging to find bodies when the team ran out 
of eyewitnesses and reports on possible grave locations. 
While the delegation viewed the evidence around the ranch, 
Baretto pointed out the stack of personal effects found with 
the bodies, and the sacks of processed cocaine stashed in 
holes near the graves.  In a separate, private meeting, 
Cortes and Baretto told UN representatives they had also 
uncovered tapes with conversations linking San Onofre's Mayor 
and Sucre's Governor to Cadena's band.  The tapes reportedly 
included discussions of the politicians paying the AUC for 
protection and offering to ignore the AUC's drug trafficking 
and other illegal activities. 
 
Mayor Outraged by GOC Criticism 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) San Onofre Mayor Jorge Blanco denounced the GOC for 
allegedly punishing municipality residents for paramilitary 
crimes.  He told the delegation he sympathized with the 
victims but wanted San Onofre to move past its dark era.  He 
denounced the mayor's office from 1997-1999 (the peak of the 
murders according to Blanco) for failing to stop the murders. 
 Blanco did not explain why he had not heard about the 
murders during his own fifteen-year tenure with the mayor's 
office before becoming mayor, or why he did not know any of 
the basic details of the interagency exhumation.  He stressed 
that Senator Gustavo Petro had made things worse by 
publicizing his findings nationally in the weekly periodical 
"El Espectador" before revealing the information locally. 
"It makes me sick that Petro is blaming San Onofre citizens 
for this and alleging that we all have ties to guerrilla 
groups or to the paramilitaries," he said.  He added that 
crime levels in the area had improved significantly during 
his tenure and remarked that he believed the worst was over. 
 
NGOs and Church Pessimistic about Future 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Victims and NGO representatives met the delegation an 
hour away in Sucre's capital, Sincelejo, claiming that 
meeting in San Onofre would put them in danger.  In contrast 
to the Mayor's remarks that the town was "moving forward," 
both victims and NGOs asserted that the public was vulnerable 
to attacks by illegal armed groups.  In separate meetings, 
both reported that the military stationed in the area failed 
to take citizens seriously when they reported crimes. 
According to the NGOs and violence victims, only Colonel 
Colon, the head of the first Mobile Brigade (BRIM 1), 
responded to citizen concerns and attempted to protect 
locals.  Nevertheless, several citizens remarked that the 
mass roundups and arrests of 2004 had only reinforced 
existing mistrust of the Colombian military's intentions. 
 
¶8. (C) Six NGOs, including the Deacon of Peace; the 
Franciscan Saint Somas Moro Foundation; the Life, Justice, 
and Equity Corporation; and the Community and Communal 
Women's Network presented a list of the most critical 
problems facing northern Sucre populations.  For example they 
stressed that many municipalities' residents were confined to 
town limits and prevented from leaving.  Displacement was 
also a serious issue for municipalities -- they estimated 
that an average of ten Sucre residents were newly displaced 
every day.  NGO representatives claimed that some demobilized 
paramilitaries from La Mojana Bloc (demobilized in February 
2005) remained active in the area and terrorized the 
population. 
 
¶9. (C) Bishop Nel Beltran, in charge of all Catholic Church 
congregations in Sucre, hosted the meetings with victims and 
NGOs in his residence.  He told the delegation that the 
illegal armed groups had shifted from conducting massacres to 
carrying out individual assassinations targeted against the 
military or a rival terrorist group.  In particular, he 
mentioned the story of two young local women who were 
murdered while eight months pregnant because the babies' 
fathers were Colombian soldiers.  Beltran also opined that 
the illegal groups avoided direct clashes with rival groups 
but rather focused their aggression on the local population. 
In a private meeting, he told the group that AUC Commander 
Salvatore Mancuso had saved his life by advising him against 
criticizing narcotrafficking in the region.  Beltran said the 
Catholic Church was allowed to criticize illegal armed groups 
in general, but raising the drug trade in Sucre could prove 
fatal. 
 
Local Military Maintain Order 
----------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C) Colonel Salcedo of BRIM 1 briefed the group on 
military strategy and the actions his unit takes to protect 
the population.  He said the mountains between San Onofre and 
San Isidro municipalities were home to almost 430 guerrillas 
from the National Liberation Army (ELN) "Nelson Bloc", the 
Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and the FARC's 36 and 37th 
Fronts.  In addition, Salcedo estimated that roughly 500 
active AUC fighters under Diego Vecino control the plains 
surrounding those mountains.  Despite the high concentration 
of terrorists, Salcedo said landmines were the greatest 
threat to the Navy presence.  At the end of the brief, a UN 
employee asked Salcedo why the Navy had not discovered the 
AUC murders in San Onofre sooner.  Salcedo replied that 
locals did not trust the Navy but said the situation was 
improving thanks to social outreach programs.  He commented 
that he thought it would be difficult to maintain order once 
the AUC demobilized in the area.  "We will have to protect 
everyone then," he concluded. 
WOOD