Disappeared at the Palace of Justice

1.12.07

Author: CCAJAR – Editorial 25/10/2007

On the September 29, 2007, the delegate prosecutor before the Supreme Court of Justice took the unprecedented decision of certifying copies for the Indictment Commission of the Chamber of Representatives to investigate former president Belisario Betancur Cuartas’s involvement in the disappearance of eleven persons, among them cafeteria employees, Palace visitors, and a guerrilla member. The prosecutor delegate also sent copies to the Office the Attorney General to investigate General Rafael Samudio Molina, commander of the national army, and General Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, commander of the XIII Brigade, who were then a part of the armed forces chain of command. This decision is vitally important for the right to truth and justice of the victims, their relatives, Colombian society, and the international community as a whole. Since these violations occurred in the very heart of the Republic, this may be the most significant case in the legal history of Colombia from the last century.

The indictment was also issued against Colonel (Ret.) Edilberto Sánchez Rubiano, chief of the XIII Brigade’s B-2 Unit, Major (Ret.) Oscar William Vásquez Rodríguez, his immediate subordinate in the Casa del Florero, as well as three noncommissioned intelligence officers, for the punishable offenses of aggravated kidnapping and forced disappearance for the disappearance of eleven persons who were alive when they left the Palace of Justice.

Up to now, Colonel (Ret.) Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega, former commander of the Cavalry School and presently under preventive detention, has been linked to the investigation given he commanded the operation to take back the Palace of Justice, carried out intelligence work on the persons removed, and considered them “suspects” or “special”. In the tactical unit under his command, grave human rights violations were committed, including forced disappearances, acts of torture, extrajudicial executions, and other cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment. Colonel (Ret.) Luis Carlos Sadovnik Sánchez, second-in-command and chief of staff of the XIII Brigade, has also been linked to the investigation. However, copies still need to be certified concerning Generals Rafael Hernández López and Carlos Fracica Naranjo, members of the Artillery School, as well as other commanders from such tactical units as the Marine School, Presidential Guard and Military Police Battalions, due to the role carried out by their units in the handling of the hostages and other persons who left the building. This would be in accordance with the “doctrine of the chain of command” or co-authorship, which international criminal courts interpret as all actors sharing a common plan consisting of attempting to take part in a joint criminal enterprise and favoring, individually and jointly, the criminal objective.

For the first time in Colombia, a prosecutor certified copies for the civil courts to investigate the practice of torture that may have been committed against disappeared persons’ relatives, who are also victims. Insofar as cases concerning the forced disappearance of persons, jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court allows understanding the violation of the right to the psychic and moral integrity of the victims’ relatives as a specific, direct consequence of this phenomenon. This situation causes them to severely suffer from the act itself, which, among other factors, increases when State authorities continually do not provide information on the whereabouts of the victim or initiate an effective investigation to achieve the clarification of the acts.

It should not be forgotten the progress achieved up to now is the result of the insistence and perseverance of the relatives of the persons disappeared from the cafeteria at the Palace of Justice. On June 29, 2001, these relatives requested the Colombian Attorney General to open a judicial investigation for the disappearance of their loved ones. On November 2005, twenty years after the acts were committed, Attorney General Mario Iguarán Arana especially appointed the Fourth Delegate Prosecutor before the Supreme Court of Justice to pursue the investigation to its end.

As a part of the investigation, it has been proven intelligence agencies from the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military forces, senior army, navy and air force intelligence officers, senior national police intelligence officers, and senior DAS intelligence officers, had been informed, since October 16, 1985, M-19 was going to take over the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice. The authorities also knew members of the Council of State were under threat, since the latter had received death threats in October 1985.

Nonetheless, days before the takeover, the public force withdrew the police guard at the Palace of Justice, a decision not intervened by any magistrate from the high courts, which presumably violated the State’s obligation of preventing the commission of the act. To the contrary, this act was facilitated with the purpose of both eliminating the guerrilla command as well as the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Council of State, who inconvenienced them with investigations.

The investigation also dismissed the possibility members of the cafeteria or the regular or chance visitors could have any link with the members of the guerrilla group. Additionally, the investigation determined the fire at the Palace of Justice resulted from a projectile shot by the national army from the outside towards the library and that this fire began at five in the afternoon on November 6, 1985.

The investigation also reaffirmed the irregular inhumation of the bodies in a common grave as ordered by Judge 78 of the military criminal proceedings, who did not posses any file relating to the preliminary proceedings of the investigation and issued the extra procedural order to bury a group of 25 bodies in a common grave, 17 of which had still not been identified and thus interrupting the process being carried out by the relatives to recognize the bodies.

In this regard, we demand the Indictment Commission of the Chamber of Representatives to seriously investigate the participation of then president Belisario Betancur for the disappearance of these persons, not as a mere formality or in a manner meant to fail, as required by international human rights standards. Likewise, we also expect the Office of the Attorney General to initiate investigations against Generals (Ret.) Rafael Samudio Molina and Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales.

The criminal judges of the Specialized Circuit Court in Bogotá (who must try Colonels (Ret.) Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega and Edilberto Sánchez Rubiano, and their subordinates, for the forced disappearance of eleven persons at the Palace of Justice) have an immense responsibility with the victims’ relatives, Colombian society, and the international community, who are waiting for the results. The Supreme Court of Justice is also not divested of responsibility, which has issued important decisions this year on political crime and para-politics and should also investigate or try senior officials of the military command.

As requested by the victims’ relatives, the case of the persons disappeared at the Palace of Justice is presently being studied by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which should issue a decision this next year on if it sends the case to the Inter-American Court, concerning which it will bear in mind the behavior of Colombian judicial bodies.

Read more Denuncias

International Peace Observatory  |  Observatorio Internacional de la Paz  |  Bogotá, Colombia  |  NIT: 900.013.419-3

www.peaceobservatory.org  |  info@peaceobservatory.org  |  Telefax: (+57) 1 232 10 06   |  Móvil: (+57) 314 296 47 69