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REPORT
Nº 2/94
CASE 10.912
COLOMBIA
February 1, 1994(*)
1. On
June 2, 1991 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received
the following complaint:
I.
THE FACTS
At the Honduras farm:
At approximately 1 a.m. on March 4, 1988, 20 armed men in
civilian clothes arrived at the Honduras farm situated in the
jurisdiction of Currulao, municipality of Turbo, Department of
Antioquia, in the Golfo de Urabá area of Colombia.
They banged on the door of the room where the workers on the
Honduras farm and their families were sleeping, and calling each one
by name, forced them to come out and lie down on the floor.
Women, children and those workers who had not been selected
were made to stay in their rooms and turn off the lights.
The attackers then fired on the totally defenseless workers
with short and long-range weapons, killing the 17 they had selected.
At the La Negra farm:
After the crime, the individuals proceeded to the La Negra
farm, not far from the Honduras farm, and murdered three other workers
there.
II. THE
VICTIMS
2. The
murdered workers from the Honduras farm, all active members of the
Antioquia Agricultural workers Trade Union, SINTAGRO, were:
1. PEDRO
MIGUEL GONZALEZ MARTINEZ: 20
years of age;
2. JOSE
BIENVENIDO GONZALEZ MARTINEZ: 20
years of age;
3. JOSE
MESA SANCHEZ: married;
4. JOSE
JOAQUIN MENDOZA: 30 years
of age;
6. RODRIGO
GUZMAN ESPITIA: 35 years
of age;
7. MANUEL
ESPITIA COGOLLO: 40 years
of age;
8. ENRIQUE
GUIZAO GIRALDO: 47 years
of age;
9. RITO
MARTINEZ REYES: 28 years
of age;
10. SANTIAGO
ORTIZ CAUDO: 40 years of
age;
11. NESTOR
MARIÑO GALVEZ: 45 years
of age;
12. JOSE INDOVEL
PINEDA: 29 years of age;
13. NATANIEL
ROJAS RESTREPO: 48 years of
age;
14.
OMAR OCHOA;
15. GUILLERMO LEON VALENCIA;
16.
MANUEL DURANGO; and
17. JOSE FRANCISCO BLANCO.
The
workers murdered at the La Negra farm were:
1.
JULIAN CARRILLO;
2. ALIRIO ROJAS; and
3. ADEL MENESE PINEDA.
Total:
20 workers murdered.
III. BEFORE
THE MASSACRE
3. The
events preceding the massacre are as follows:
Eight days before the events, on February 24, 1988, a patrol of
the Voltíjeros battalion of the army under lieutenant of the B-s
Military Intelligence, PEDRO BERMUDEZ LOZANO, accompanied by individuals
in civilian dress, conducted searches at the Honduras, La Toyosa and
Agripina farms. There they
threatened to kill workers to prevent them from voting in the elections
that were to be held on March 13 and gave them 14 days to leave the
area. They also arrested
PASCUAL FUENTES RAMOS: JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA FERNANDEZ, JESUS PALACIOS
ASPRILLA and OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO, 16 years of age, and took them to the
barracks where they questioned them, using duress and threats and
forcing them to declare that several workers on the honduras and la
negra farms belonged to the guerrilla movement people's liberation army
(EPL). Olga Lucía was also
taken to those farms mentioned and indicated the place where the
workers, alleged members of the EPL, lived.
At the barracks the detainees met two individuals whom they
identified as "Lenin" and "Zacarías", former
members of the EPL, and realized that they were working as army
informers. These
individuals took part in their interrogation and offered them money to
work for the army and turn over their colleagues.
The detainees recalled that at one stage in the interrogation
"Lenin" told a B-2 corporal that the Honduras, La Negra, la
Toyosa and Oro Verde farms were guerrilla cells, to which the
noncommissioned officer replied that he shouldn't worry because they
would soon be paying them a visit.
Two days before the massacre, on March 2, the troops of the Voltíjeros
battalion under Captain Luis Felipe Becerra appeared at the La Zumbadora
farm, located near the Honduras and La Negra farms, accompanied by a
masked individual who pointed out some workers.
Six workers were detained there and beaten in front of their
colleagues. The captain
told them that he would not kill them himself, but that he would have
someone else do the job, and again warned them against voting for the
Unión Patriótica in the elections.
IV. FORMALITIES
OF THE CASE
4. On
July 2, 1991 the pertinents parts of the petition were transmitted to
the Government of Colombia.
5. The
Government of Colombia replied to the Commission on October 4, 1991,
informing it that the case was undergoing a thorough internal inquiry,
and promised to inform the Commission as soon as it received the
additional information it had requested on the investigations taking
place of the murders at the Honduras and La Negra farms, and informed
the Commission that the domestic remedies had not been exhausted and
were still in process.
6. The
Government of Colombia having duly replied to the complaint, the
Commission continued to deal with the case in accordance with the rules
set forth in the American Convention on Human Rights and its
Regulations, giving each of the parties the opportunity to state what it
deemed appropriate concerning the observations formulated by each of
them.
7. During
the process of receiving and examining information from the various
parties, the Commission placed at the disposal of the Government of
Colombia the relevant parts of the communications sent by the petitioner
formulating observations on its allegations and/or making reference to
new or known evidence. The
following is the order of the correspondence from the Commission to the
Government of Colombia:
Note of July 2, 1991, forwarded the pertinent parts of the
complaint.
Note of July 3, 1992, forwarded the petitioner's observations on
the reply from the Government of Colombia to the complaint.
Note of May 19, 1992, forwarded the petitioner's observations on
its Official Letter of February 4.
Note of June 10, 1993, requested additional information with
regard to this case.
Notes of August 31 and September 1, acknowledged receipt of Note
No. 705 from the Mission, dated August 20, 1993.
8. The
Commission also informed the petitioner and forwarded the relevant parts
of the notes sent in reply by the Government of Colombia. The order of the notes sent to the petitioner by the
Commission is as follows:
Official letter of July 2, 1991, informed it of the initiation of
the formalities of the case.
Official letter of October 17, 1991, transmitted the Government's
reply.
Official letter of January 3, 1992, acknowledged receipt of
observations on the Government's reply.
Official letter of February 24, 1992, forwarded the Government's
reply dated February 19, 1992.
Official letter of May 19, 1992, acknowledged receipt of
observations on a further reply form the Government.
V.
EXHAUSTION OF DOMESTIC REMEDIES
9. The
following is a summary of the information provided to the Commission by
the petitioner and by the Government of Colombia, of the investigations
conducted on the aforementioned massacre:
A) THE
POLICE INVESTIGATION
The D.A.S., Administrative Department of Security, given the
seriousness of the events, prepared a confidential report entitled Investigation
of murders at La Honduras and La Negra, Urabá, April 16, 1988.
It stated that the problem started when the EPL stepped up its
campaign of kidnapping, murder and extortion against the farmers of the
region, who formed self-defense groups to join forces with the army;
this led to the polarization of positions and transformed the area into
a war zone, generating a power vacuum that encouraged all manner of
atrocities.
THE CONTEXT:
The Honduras farm consisting of 120 hectares of banana
cultivation and 60 hectares devoted to stock raising, one of the most
prosperous in the Urabá area in Antioquia, was like the others, the
object of the guerrilla attacks and invasion of lands supported by the
agricultural union SINTAGRO, which resulted in 40 families taking over
the farm, creating a confrontation between the owners and the trade
union, with presumed links to the FARCs, and subsequently, at the time
of the events, to the EPL.
THE CONCLUSION: In
the case of the Honduras and La Negra massacres, the Colombian army used
ex-guerrillas who had deserted from the EPL as guides, incorporating
them into their patrols, by locating, identifying and eliminating
alleged subversives and, for the same purpose, with hired assassins
(paramilitary troops) financed by ACDEGAM, or Association of Farmers and
Stockbreeders of Magdalena Medio.
This conclusion was corroborated by:
a) the statements by PASCUAL FUENTES RAMOS, who identified the
individual called Lenín as a former leader of the EPL who offered him
money for every 10 EPL members he turned over, and a fixed wage if he
worked for the army, and by OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO CORREA, who also pointed
out ZACARIAS as an EPL member who showed the troops to the La Negra,
Honduras, Oro Verde and other farms; b) proof that prior to the massacre
masked men were seen pointing out the future victims, the inference
being that only acquaintances would hide their faces to avoid
identification by victims and witnesses; c) the assassins' knowledge of
the victims whereabouts, their certain knowledge that weapons existed,
and the repeated visits by armed personnel accompanied by civilians,
inquiring about persons involved in subversion; d) verification that the
victims of the massacre, initially presented as simple farm-workers, did
indeed have links with the EPL and that the others were active members
of SINTAGRO; e) By the fact that, prior to these events several workers
abandoned some farms in the area, because they were aware of or involved
in the plot, and f) the participation in both massacres of a similar
number of people using similar weapons and the brutality used to
annihilate totally defenseless victims, behavior typical of paramilitary
fanatics, who are quite unscrupulous.
The D.A.S. concluded by pointing out that Public Order Court No.
2 had sufficient background and data in its possession, provided by the
DAS itself, to initiate an investigation, order arrests, raids and other
pertinent actions.
B)
JUDICIAL INQUIRY UNDER THE GENERAL PENAL CODE
On March 8, 1988, the Department of Criminal Proceedings, taking
the DAS report into account, set up a commission of inquiry under the
orders of the Second Public Order Court of Bogotá, which initiated a
preliminary inquiry. After
three months of investigation, on June 25, 1988, the Judge of the Second
Public Order Court of Bogotá, Dr. Martha Lucia González Rodríguez,
pronounced a decision with the following conclusions:
ON THE PRELIMINARY EVENTS.
On the evening of February 24, 1988, Lieutenant PEDRO
VICENTE BERMUDEZ LOZANO commanded a patrol that searched the Honduras,
La Toyosa and La Agripina farms.
During that operation four persons were arrested at the La Toyosa
farm: JESUS PALACIOS
ASPRILLA and OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO were discovered by a soldier, manuel
Morales, while they were hiding a bag containing weapons; then they
arrested PASCUAL FUENTES RAMOS and JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA, whom the first
two claimed were accomplices.
ON THE PROSPECTIVE VICTIMS.
Both at the barracks and before the Court, OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO
recognized that they were members of the People's Liberation Army, EPL,
a statement confirmed by PASCUAL FUENTES RAMOS and JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA,
and that they were also active members of the "JOSE DOLORES"
urban unit commanded by "el Pájaro", whose second-in-command
was CHUCHO, and another leader was MOLINA.
That members of this unit were EL DONALD, FRANCISCO, HUGO, RAMON,
YOLANDA, GARCES, EL ZAORRO, ENCARNACION, ANDRES MOZOS, EDWIN, TERESA,
BADILLO CARTAGENA, INOCENCIO, ALBETO, SILVIO, ALVARO, FAUSTINO, ALIRIO,
IVAN ZAPATA, JOAQUIN, CAMPILLO, PEDRO, most of whom worked at the
Honduras farm. That
LUIS ENOC MENESES is el Pájaro; JAVIER DE JESUS QUINTERO, Chucho; IVAN
DARIO MOLINA, Molina; LUIS ALBERTO PAEZ, Alberto; MANUEL GARCES ESCOBAR,
Garcés; LUIS SILVIO BERMUDEZ, Silvio; ALIRIO ROJAS, Alirio; IVAN
ZAPATA; PEDRO GONZALEZ, Pedro; and RAMILLO CAMPILLO, Campillo; JOSE DEL
TRANSITO MURILLO, el Diablo or Demonio; ABEL MENESES, el viejo, and
LIBARDO YANEZ, N.N. HOMBRE, Rambo.
This
proved to the court that the victims were mostly guerrillas and that the
massacre was the result of the dirty and clandestine that was being
waged.
ON EX-GUERRILLA INFORMERS.
Lieutenant Bermúdez Lozano and Sergeant Lagos Aranda confirmed
to the court that LENIN and ZACARIAS lived in the Voltíjeros battalion
where they had sought refuge when they deserted the guerrilla group,
thereby confirming their involvement.
ON PARAMILITARY TROOPS ON THE DAY OF THE MASSACRE.
On February 24, the armed men in civilian clothes who accompanied
Lieutenant BERMUDEZ, Corporal OCHOA and Captain BECERRA - were present
at the operation during which they arrested OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO, PASCUAL
FUENTES RAMOS, JESUS AMIN PALACIOS ASPRILLA and JOSE ALBERTO GARCIA
FERNANDEZ. The same 38
persons who had been dispatched by ACDEGAN in mid-February, shortly
before the events, from Puerto Boyacá to Urabá, to "purge"
the area of guerrillas with the help of members of the Armed Forces and
the national Police. It is also proved that it was those same persons who accompanied Olga Lucía to identify the place where the workers accused of being members of the EPS lived and that this version was corroborated by several witnesses among those present who were able to identify and describe them.
That those civilians were the same people who participated on
March 4, 1988, in the massacre at the Honduras and La Negra farms, and
that it was possible to identify them (1) because they had participated
in and been seen at various other army raids, and (2) they had been seen
by surviving relatives of the murder victims.
ON THE COMPLICITY OF THE ARMY:
It was determined during this investigation that the
responsibility of the members of the army on active service, attached to
the B-2 Voltíjeros battalion, such as Lieutenant PEDRO VICENTE BERMUDEZ
LOZANO, referred to participation as a collaborator in the murder under
investigation; that the officer knew the assassins who came to URABA
from Magdalena Medio for the purpose of murdering the individuals who
were active members of the extreme left; that not only did they go out
with those criminals for the February 24 operation when they detained
PASCUAL FUENTES and OLGA LUCIA RESTREPO, but also allowed them to enter
the battalion, and to carry long- and short-range weapons reserved for
the Armed Forces; finally, Lieutenant BERMUDEZ and his colleagues were
accused of accepting, facilitating, assisting and permitting the murder
of March 4, 1988, acting as ACCOMPLICES to that act since they had
effectively contributed to its occurrence.
It is obvious that in committing the multiple homicide at the
Honduras and La Negra farms, those individuals relied on the complicity
of the Army, a fact corroborated before the court by one of the
assassins, EULISES BARRERO, who added that on occasion, members of the
Army collaborated with the organization by giving it support and helped
to coordinate their activities with them, and allowing them to move
about even if armed.
That Lieutenant Bermúdez had lied when he stated that the Voltíjeros
battalion only learned of the massacre at 11 a.m. through a telephone
call from Bogotá. This was
denied by the police Commandant who says that he informed the battalion
before 10 o'clock in the morning, in addition to the fact that members
of the battalion were seen picking up spent cartridges and projectiles
from the site of the massacre and witnessed the removal of the corpses.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT.
The court decided to order Lieutenant BERMUDEZ LOZANO's arrest as
an accessory to the crimes of aggravated homicide; not to arrest
him in connection with the offense of robbery with which he had also
been charged, and not to issue an order of distraint or seizure of his
property since it was unaware whether he possessed any; to instruct the
authorities to establish an identification file on the accused, and to
request the Commander of the Armed Forces to suspend him from active
service in his army position, so as to render the arrest effective.
ON PARAMILITARY LEADERS AS INTELLECTUAL PERPETRATORS OF THE
MASSACRE.
The court succeeded in establishing the link and responsibility
of the ASOCIACION CAMPESINA DE GANADEROS DEL MAGDALENA MEDIO, ACDEGAM,
with headquarters in Puerto Boyacá, where the murder gang had its base
in the el Diamante farm belonging to Fidel Castaño.
They were trained at the Diamante Dos farm, which belonged to
Fidel Castaño. It was
proved that these squads with armed heavy weapons reserved for exclusive
use by the Armed Forces, moved about freely on the various highways
without being stopped by the police or army, although the areas where
law and order are most disturbed are heavily patrolled by military units
through which they would have had to pass.
That the main leaders are GONZALO PEREZ, HENRY PEREZ, MARCELO
PEREZ, FIDEL CASTAÑO, CESAR CURE, ALAN ROJAS, HERNAN GIRALDO, among
others, but that those responsible for the massacre at the Honduras and
La Negra farms were GONZALO PEREZ, HENRY PEREZ and MARCELO PEREZ, who
hired the 8 "mayordomos" with families to go to URABA
accompanied by another 30 men, some of whom, after committing the
murders in that region, went on to Montería, Córdoba, where they were
received by FIDEL CASTAÑO at his JARAGUAY farm.
Based on evidence collected, the Second Public Order court also
linked Captain Becerra and Corporal Ochoa Ortíz to the accused and
ordered the arrest of a paramilitary group including Fidel Castaño
and Luis Alfredo Rubio (at that time Mayor of Puerto Bayacá).
The Public Order Tribunal upheld those arrests.
JUDGES THREATENED AND MURDERED:
During the first week of September 1988, Second Judge, Dr.
Martha Lucía González, who had passed the sentence, was obliged to
leave the country because she was persistently threatened with death
if she continued the investigation.
On July 4, 1989, despite the judge's withdrawal and as a
reprisal against her, her father, the lawyer Alvaro Gonzáles, was
murdered. To replace
Dr. González, the Department of Criminal Proceedings transferred the
case to the city of Medellín
where the investigation fell to Dr. María Elena Díaz, Third
Public Order Judge, who undertook the investigation into the massacre
and continued examination of the evidence, and on June 17, 1989, upheld
the decision to arrest Lieutenant Bermúdez and on June 22 the arrests
of Mayor Becerra and Corporal Ochoa.
Very shortly after taking over the case the judge, dr. María
Elena Díaz, received death threats and was murdered on July
26, 1989.
Forty days after the murder of Judge María Elena Díaz, the
Higher Public Order Tribunal of Medellín granted a provisional
release to Lieutenant Bermúdez. In September 1989 the case was referred to the first Public
Order Court of Bogotá, which on November 1 of that year granted a
provisional release to Mayor Becerra and one month later, on December 1,
1989 revoked the rulings for the arrest of mayor Becerra, Lieutenant
Becerra and Corporal Ochoa. The
agent of the Ministry of the Interior appealed against this decision on
August 17, 1990, and the Public Order Tribunal revoked the decision
and confirmed the rulings for the arrest.
On June 17, 1991, Court 103 of the Public Order Jurisdiction,
Bogotá Section, passed the following sentences on the following
individuals for the murders at the "HONDURAS", "LA NEGRA"
and "PUNTA COQUITOS" farms:
Ricardo Rayo,
30 years' imprisonment for crimes of homicide for terrorist purposes and
terrorism as an accomplice in the perpetration of punishable acts,
payment of 50 minimum monthly wages and a cumulative penalty of
interdiction of rights and public functions for a period equivalent to
that of the main sentence; Mario Zuluaga Espinal, 30 years'
imprisonment for crimes of homicide for terrorist purposes and terrorism
as an accomplice in the perpetration of punishable acts, as intellectual
author of those crimes. He
was also fined 200 minimum monthly wages and condemned to the cumulative
penalty of interdiction of rights and public functions; Víctor Hugo
Martínez Barragán and Mario Usuga Guez, 20 years' imprisonment, a
fine of 50 minimum monthly wages and cumulative penalty of interdiction
of rights and public functions for a period equivalent to that of the
principal sentence; Víctor Suárez Sánchez, 22 years'
imprisonment and a fine of 50 minimum monthly wages for crimes of
homicide for terrorist purposes and illegal possession of arms and
cumulative penalty of interdiction of rights and public functions for a
period equivalent to that of the principal sentence; Luis Alfredo
Rubio Rojas, former Mayor of the town of Puerto Boyacá, Henry Pérez
Jiménez, Marcelo de Jesús Pérez, Gonzalo Pérez, Fidel Antonio Castaño
Gil, Adán Rojas Ospino, Hernán Giraldo Serna and Reinel Rojas each
sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for the offense of conspiracy to
commit a crime with aggravating circumstances and cumulative penalty of
interdiction of rights and public functions for a period of time
equivalent to that of the principal sentence passed, but they were
acquitted of the charge of material and intellectual authorship of
homicide for terrorist purposes; Ricardo Rayo, Mario Zuluaga Espinal,
Víctor Hugo Martínez Barragán, Víctor Suárez Sánchez, Luis Alfredo
Rubio Rojas, Henry Pérez Jiménez, Marcelo de Jesús Pérez, gonzalo Pérez,
Fidel Antonio Castaño Gil, Adán Rojas Ospino, Hernán Giraldo
Serna and Reinel Rojas, sentenced to pay compensation of 2,000 grams
of gold for the material damage and 500 grams of gold for the moral
damages caused. The
court decided to add the following to the sentence:
To disallow the nullities raised on behalf of the defense by the
attorney for Fidel Castaño Gil and Ricardo Rayo; to deny
Ricardo Rayo's appeal; to grant the remedy of appeal invoked by the
Ministry of the Interior against the sentence of June 17 of this year;
to grant the remedy of appeal invoked by the attorneys for Luis Alfredo
Rubio Rojas, Mario Zuluaga Espinal, Hernán Giraldo Serna, Adán Rojas
Ospino and Ricardo Rayo. With
regard to Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, the Court decided not
to pass any judgement as proof of his death existed in the court
records, which was confirmed by the Higher Public Order Tribunal.
In the case of Pablo Escobar Gaviria, accused of
conspiracy to commit a crime and confined with security measures upheld
by the Public Order Tribunal, the court granted the appeal sought by his
attorney, on the grounds that there was no direct charge against him nor
any serious accusations connecting him to the events of the night of
March 4, 1988, thereby acquitting him of responsibility.
On January 30, 1992, the Higher Public Order Tribunal (now
National Tribunal) upheld the earlier decision against which LUIS
ALFREDO RUBIO ROJAS, HERNAN GIRALDO SERNA, FIDEL CASTAñO GIL and
RICARDO RAYO (who was under arrest) had appealed. Since March 31, 1992, the case has been before the Court of
Appeal of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Bearing in mind the legal provisions for processing the remedy of
appeal, it is likely that the Supreme Court of Justice could hand down a
decision at the end of this year.
In march 1992, the Disciplinary Tribunal decided that the
soldiers involved, that is, Captain Becerra (by then a Lieutenant
Colonel), Lieutenant Bermúdez (promoted to captain) and Sergeants Felix
Antonio Ochoa and José Ramiro Lagos, would be tried by military court,
acceding to the request made by the attorney for one of the officers.
C) INVESTIGATION
BY THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE NATION. SUMMARY OF ITS DECISIONS
(1)
DECISION OF AUGUST 19, 1992
The office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Armed Forces
instituted a disciplinary investigation against Captain (promoted
to Lieutenant Colonel) Luis Felipe Becerra Bohórquez; Lieutenant
(promoted to Captain) Pedro Vicente Bermúdez Lozano and
Corporal (promoted to Sergeant Class II) Felipe Ochoa Ruíz, and in
the light of the evidence accumulated against them, brought the
following charges.
1. That
as an Officer of the National Army, attached to the Tenth Brigade of
which he was Commander, he carried out the operation at the La Toyosa
and Honduras farms, located in the municipality of Turbo (Antioquia) on
February 24, 1988, which he visited accompanied by a number of heavily
armed assassins, individuals who during the night of March 4, of that
year killed 20 farmers who worked at the Honduras and La Negra farms.
2. That
also on February 24, 1988, he brutally mistreated staff working and
living in specific buildings of the La Toyosa and Honduras farms.
3. That
he threatened to kill the workers at Sumadera farm on March 2, 1988,
warning them that if they did not leave the region within 14 days they
would be murdered.
4. That
as Commander of the Voltíjeros battalion, he permitted Olga Lucía
Restrepo, who had been in detention since February 24, 1988, to move
about unlawfully in various parts of the region so as to force her to
point out persons who were sympathizers or militants of subversive
groups, especially at the Honduras farm.
Having considered the pleas of the accused and the evidence
against them, the Assistant Attorney General DECIDED:
1. To
penalize the captain of the national army, now Lieutenant Colonel
BECERRA, with DISMISSAL FROM HIS POSITION (permanent separation from the
armed forces) as the person responsible for the acts with which he was
charged, without prejudice to any penal action;
2. To
penalize lieutenant of the national army, now Captain Pedro Vicente
BERMUDEZ, with DISMISSAL FROM HIS POSITION (permanent separation from
the armed forces) as the person responsible for the acts with which he
was charged, without prejudice to any penal action.
3. To
penalize Corporal Class I of the national army, now Sergeant Class II Félix
Antonio OCHOA RUIZ, with DISMISSAL FROM HIS POSITION (permanent
separation from the armed forces) as the person responsible for the acts
with which he was charged, without prejudice to any penal action.
The attorneys for the accused soldiers appealed this DECISION.
(2) DECISION OF
FEBRUARY 1993 of the Office of the Assistant Attorney General:
DENIED the appeal of the petitioner and confirmed the decision
appealed and did not modify or revoke the decision of August 29, 1992.
(3) DECISION OF
APRIL 20, 1993
On April 20, 1993, although the five-year period of limitation on
disciplinary action from the last act of the offense had elapsed, and
employing a procedure not applicable in disciplinary proceedings, the
new Assistant Attorney General for the Armed Forces, through Decision
No.221 of the date indicated, revoked decision No.255 of August 19,
1992, upheld by Resolution 093 of February 8, 1993, which ordered the
dismissal of the soldiers responsible, allowed them to go absolutely
unpunished on the grounds that the evidence provided in the various
lawsuits were inconsistent, and further declared all disciplinary
action at an end.
D) INVESTIGATION
BY THE MILITARY PENAL COURT
The military penal court took over the trial of the officers
involved on the basis of the decision of the Public Order Court to
suspend the case against them, on the grounds that the actions of which
they were accused had been carried out in the exercise of their military
duties. |
