VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #0400/01 0371622
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061622Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6917
INFO RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1619
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ FEB PANAMA 2974
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 7667
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 8629
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 4809
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJC/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS BOGOTA 000400 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KJUS CO
SUBJECT: JANUARY HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE 
 
REF: BOGOTA 291 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (U)  Prosecutors continued to order arrests of soldiers 
suspected of participating in extrajudicial executions.  The 
Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia) charged 10 soldiers 
for the 2005 massacre of eight San Jose de Apartado Peace 
Community members.  The Defense Ministry dismissed eleven 
members of the La Popa Battalion of the 10th Armored Brigade, 
citing command and control issues.  The FARC set off a bomb 
outside a Bogota Blockbuster, killing two, and attacked the 
police station in the town of Roberto Popayan (Narino), 
killing six civilians.  Captured FARC members told a local 
human rights group that the FARC has murdered perhaps as many 
as 200 of its "economic" hostages.  Extradited former-AUC 
leader Jorge 40, and a lieutenant still at large, were 
accused of the 2001 deaths of two Drummond union leaders. End 
Summary 
 
EJES:  MORE ARRESTS AND DISMISSALS 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  The Prosecutor General's office (Fiscalia) charged 
10 soldiers with homicide for the February 21, 2005 massacre 
of eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community 
in Uraba (Antioquia).  The Fiscalia indicated that members of 
the 47th Infantry Battalion of the 17th Brigade colluded with 
former-AUC leader Diego Murillo Bejarano's (Don Berna) "Heros 
de Tolova" block to combat the FARC in the area.  Confessions 
by Don Berna, who was extradited to the United States in May 
2008, and other former AUC members facilitated the 
prosecution.  The Fiscalia noted that the Peace Community's 
refusal to cooperate had complicated its investigation. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The Ministry of Defense forcibly retired 11 current 
and former members of the La Popa Battalion of the 10th 
Armored Brigade from Cesar Department on January 22, citing 
command and control problems identified in an investigation 
by Army Inspector General Carlos Arturo Suarez.  Armed Forces 
Commander General Freddy Padilla said the results of Suarez' 
investigations would be turned over to the Fiscalia.  Suarez 
headed the special commission which investigated the Soacha 
killings and lead to the dismissal of 27 military personnel. 
In 2007 and 2008, the Fiscalia opened 25 investigations into 
150 possible extrajudicial executions (EJEs) in Cesar. 
 
¶4.  (U)  Villavicencio's Human Rights Fiscalia Unit ordered 
the capture of 14 soldiers of the 16th Brigade in Casanare 
for alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings, bringing 
the number of soldiers implicated in the 16th Brigade to 27. 
In Antioquia, a Human Rights prosecutor charged five soldiers 
-- at the time members of the 4th Brigade in Medellin -- in 
the May 28, 2005 death of Maria Santamaria Galeano.  A Human 
Rights prosecutor in Putumayo ordered the preventive 
detention of five soldiers for alleged involvement in the 
killing of Ramon Garcia Garcia on May 23, 2006 in Puerto 
Asis. 
 
FARC MOUNT ATTACKS 
------------------ 
 
¶5.  (U)  Authorities attributed the January 13 attack on 
Roberto Popayan (Narino) to the FARC's 29th Front.  Six 
people, including three children, were killed and another 11 
were seriously wounded when the FARC attacked the town with 
improvised mortars.  A January 27 bombing of a northern 
Bogota Blockbuster within blocks of dozens of Embassy 
apartments was attributed to the FARC's extortion ring. Two 
people were killed (reftel).  The FARC are also implicated in 
a small explosion in a Cali transit station which caused no 
injuries. 
 
CAPTURED FARC POINT TO GRAVES 
----------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U)  Captured FARC and demobilized paramilitaries 
provided the locations of unmarked graves to the human rights 
group Hands for Peace and the radio program "Voices of the 
Kidnapped" on January 26.  According to Liduine Zumpolle, 
international representative of Hands for Peace, over a 1000 
detained FARC fighters intend to recount their crimes in the 
hopes of joining the Justice and Peace Process.  The 
information collected by the two human rights groups 
indicates that the FARC may have murdered as many as 200 
"economic" hostages over the last ten years.  The groups also 
have information on the location of unmarked graves for both 
AUC and FARC victims. 
 
EX-PARAS ACCUSED OF KILLING DRUMMOND UNIONISTS 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶7.  (U)  A Human Rights prosecutor accused former-AUC leader 
(since extradited to the United States) Rodrigo Tovar Pupo 
("Jorge 40") and his lieutenant Oscar Jose Ospino Pacheco 
("Tolemaida") with the deaths of two Drummond unionists in 
¶2001.  The prosecutor reissued the order for arrest for 
Tolemaida. 
 
BROWNFIELD