the testimony of the next of kin of Ms. Oviedo Bonilla, at the 13th Brigade “one of the
soldiers who was on guard approached and [told her sister] not to give up, to continue
coming because she was there.” 390 Also, the next of kin of Lucy Amparo Oviedo Bonilla and
Irma Franco Pineda were advised, specifically, that the disappeared were dead and had
been buried in a mass grave. 391 Thus, the next of kin of at least seven disappeared victims
(Cristina del Pilar Guarín Cortés, Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera, David Suspes Celis, Irma
Franco Pineda, Héctor Jaime Beltrán Fuentes, Gloria Anzola de Lanao and Lucy Amparo
Oviedo Bonilla) received information following the events indicating that their family
members were detained in military garrisons. 392
employee denied any knowledge of this and asserted that all her previous statements and the information given to
Lucy Amparo Oviedo Bonilla’s husband were based on her own suppositions and in order to give spiritual comfort to
the victims’ next of kin. In this regard, the Third Court assessed the information provided by the next of kin and
concluded that, “there had to be a reason why the information [provided by the Ministry of Defense employee]
changed completely from one moment to another.” Meanwhile, the Superior Court considered that the information
received by Ms. Oviedo Bonilla’s family was “inconsistent,” and it was not “logical that [a person with administrative
functions] had obtained [that] information.” Cf. Testimony of Luz Dary Semper Bedoya of December 21, 1985, before
the Ninth Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court (evidence file, folio 28246); Testimony of Antonio Suspes Pérez of
January 8, 1986, before the Ninth Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court (evidence file, folio 28230); expansion of the
criminal complaint of Héctor Jaime Beltrán on August 29, 2001 (evidence file, folio 1122); expansion of the complaint
of María del Pilar Navarrete Urrea on August 29, 2001 (evidence file, folio 28889); Extract from the testimony of
Cecilia Cabrera of November 25, 1985, in the judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence
file, folio 23213); Testimony of Oscar Anzola Mora of February 3, 1986, before the Ninth Itinerant Criminal
Investigation Court (evidence file, folio 30003); extracts from the testimony of the next of kin and of Gloria Anzola in
the judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence file, folio 23105); Testimony of Ana María
Bonilla de Oviedo of April 2, 1986, before the 30th Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court (evidence file, folio 30970);
Testimony of Jairo Arias Méndez of December 19, 1985, before the Ninth Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court
(evidence file, folios 29625 and 29626); Testimony of Rafael María Oviedo of December 18, 1985, before the Ninth
Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court (evidence file, folios 29651 and 29652); Testimony of Emiliano Sánchez Zuluaga
of December 26, 1985, before the Ninth Itinerant Criminal Investigation Court (evidence file, folios 29605 to 29607);
Testimony of Jorge Eliécer Franco Pineda of August 14, 2006, before the Prosecution Service (evidence file, 28983 and
28984); Judgment of the Third Criminal Court of the Bogota Special Circuit of June 9, 2010 (evidence file, folio
24051), and Judgment of the Superior Court of Bogota of January 30, 2012 (evidence file, folios 23163 and 23164).
390
Cf. Testimony of Armida Eufemia Oviedo Bonilla of June 24, 2008, before the Prosecution Service (evidence file,
folio 29575).
391
In this regard, an Army officer, who was crying told Irma Franco Pineda’s brother: “don’t go on insisting”; “they
kept them in the stables at Usaquén for eight days, then they killed them, and the corpses of almost all of them were
taken to the mass grave in the South Cemetery, but that of Irma and that of a Ms. Anzola were separated and taken
to the mass grave in the Chapinero Cemetery, considering that their families might go public and react in other ways.”
Cf. Testimony of Jorge Eliécer Franco Pineda of August 14, 2006, before the Prosecution Service (evidence file, folio
28983); letter addressed to the judges of the Special Investigative Court Criminal by Rafael María Oviedo Acevedo and
Ana María Bonilla de Oviedo dated December 2, 1985 (evidence file, folio 29664), and Testimony of Rafael María
Oviedo Acevedo of December 18, 1985 (evidence file, folio 30389).
392
The Court also observes that the representatives provided as evidence the transcript of a cassette made by the
Attorney General’s office in which presumed “[agents] of the B-2 and of the State’s intelligence services” who took
part in the retaking of the Palace of Justice stated that 12 or 13 individuals had been “taken immediately to the
premises of the Cavalry School in the North Canton, and the Military Institutes Brigade north of Bogota.” In the
cassette, mention is made of the names of “David Celis, Jaime Beltrán, […] Hernando Fernández […] and Carlos
Rodríguez”, as well as of Luz Marina or Luz María or Luz Mery Puerta, Luz Mery Puerta or Luz María A. Puerta, Nohora
Esguera […] and Rosa or Margarita […] Castiblanco, who were “detained in another military facility.” In this regard, the
State alleged that “its content is not consistent with the other evidence gathered in relation to the events, and also the
recording is not available for verification, because there is only a transcript of its content.” The Court notes that two
first instance criminal courts have accorded probative value to this cassette. However, in its judgment of January 30,
2012, the Superior Court of Bogota determined that “its content is not credible,” among other reasons because, when
Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera’s father heard the cassette, he stated that he did “not accord much credibility to the
fact that it originated from the B-2, because in some of the photocopies that [they] deposited in the hospitals, clinics
and prisons requesting information on the disappeared, the name of the waiter, Bernardo Beltran Hernandez,
appeared with two typing errors and the initial of the name and second surname were interchanged, and when [he]
was given the name of this cafeteria employee […] no one associated it with his real name, but said Hernando
Fernandez.” In addition, the same photocopy included “the telephone number of a friend of my children,” and this is
the same number that was provided to Carlos Augusto’s father when they called him to offer him the cassette. The
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