memorandum of justification concerning human ... - Just the Facts

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Annex A: Arrests/Detentions by the Prosecutor General’s Office
Between June 16, 2008 to June 15, 2009, 51 the Colombian government reported
that the Prosecutor General‘s Office detained 138 individuals in cases where military
personnel allegedly committed gross human rights violations or collaborated with
paramilitary groups. Below is a list of 80 of the individuals involved in 11 such cases
(the Colombian government did not release the list of the 138 detained so this list is
incomplete as a consequence; the count of the list below varies from the total number of
individuals detained as some individuals are listed under multiple cases):
A. On August 19, 2008, (1) Army Colonel Víctor Hugo Matamoros Rodríguez was
detained for his alleged involvement in the August 21, 1999, massacre of 26 people in
La Gabarra (Norte de Santander). (Prosecutor General‘s Office Case Number
Unknown)
B. On August 29, 2008, four members of the 10 members of the Army‘s 33 rd
Counterguerrilla Battalion assigned to the 17 th Brigade were preventatively detained
for their alleged role in the January 18, 1989, La Rochela massacre, in which12
investigators were killed in Simacota (Santander) where they were sent to investigate
the massacre of 19 merchants who had died in October 1987 at the hands of the ―Los
Masetos‖ paramilitary forces of Magdalena Medio. (Prosecutor General‘s Case
Number Unknown)
(1) Army Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Espinosa Beltrán
(2) Army Major José Fernando Castaño López
(3) Army Sub-lieutenant Edgar Garcia Estupiñan
(4) Army Second Sergeant Darío José Branco Agamez
C. On April 28, 2009, seven members of the Army‘s José Hilario López Battalion were
arrested for their role in the death of José Edwin Legarda Vasquez, husband of Aida
Quilcué (leader of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca, or CRIC) on December
16, 2008. Vázquez was driving in a CRIC-marked SUV near an indigenous reserve in
Totoro (Cauca) when the soldiers allegedly opened fire, which the police say was for
his refusal to stop at a roadblock. Legarda‘s passenger, Liliana Valdes Penna, says
she never saw a roadblock or stop sign. Quilcué, who mobilized thousands of
followers this past fall as part of the Indigenous protests against the GOC, has
received multiple threats and believes the shots were meant for her. The Prosecutor
General‘s Office opened its case December 16, 2008, and the case was assigned to a
prosecutor on January 14, 2009. (Prosecutor General‘s Office Case Number
7000/Inspector General‘s Office Case Number 115-2710-08)
51 Time frame available as of July 31, 2009.
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