4
Supreme Court of Justice admitted the appeal for review filed by the Attorney General’s
Office regarding the proceeding conducted against the Police Commander in Ituango.
Likewise, as to the progress in the investigations of the Human Rights Unit regarding the
case of El Aro, it informed that charges were brought against two members of the law
enforcement personnel on January 31, 2007 and that on February 5, 2008, two paramilitary
officers were included in the investigation. As to the murder of the confessed paramilitary
officer, Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, the State indicated that it was conducting an
investigation into the matter and that at the moment of his death, he was under home
detention since it was not possible to provide the medical treatment he needed in the
penitentiary center. Moreover, it pointed out that even though there was a protection
program for witnesses, victims and interveners in criminal proceedings before the Attorney
General’s Office, none of the people included in the investigations into the facts of La Granja
and El Aro had requested protection.
9.
That as to this measure, the representatives pointed out that "the State is not acting
with due diligence to satisfy the justice expectations of the victims' next-of-kin". They noted
that “[only] one of the 18 people marked [as perpetrators and accomplices of the massacres
of El Aro and La Granja] […] had been formally joined to the proceedings due to the
preliminary interview rendered by one of the highest-paramilitary chiefs" within the process
of the Justice and Peace Act. According to the representatives, this "demonstrates, one
more time, the inefficacy of the criminal proceedings in these cases and therefore, the
impunity surrounding the facts”. In addition, they indicated that Act 975 establishes
obstacles for the participation of the victims' next-of-kin in the Justice and Peace process,
which constitutes an obstacle de jure for the compliance with the Judgment of the Court.
The representatives also noted that in May 2008, the State extradited 14 paramilitary chiefs
to the United States of America, including Salvatore Mancuso, “which created an obstacle
for the victims to have access to the proceedings conducted by the State, [depriving them]
of the possibility to require the complete confession” of the facts. Finally, the
representatives pointed out that on April 22, 2009 “the confessed paramilitary officer,
Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández ,was murdered” and that he would have rendered
statements about the fact that high-ranking state officers allegedly knew about the planning
of the massacre of El Aro and the murder of the human rights defender, Jesús María Valle
Jaramillo. The representatives considered that "the murder of Francisco Villalba constitutes
an additional obstacle to the criminal investigations that are being conducted for the murder
of Jesús María Valle [Jaramillo] and the massacre of El Aro". Therefore, they requested the
Tribunal to order the State to provide information on the measures adopted to “protect the
victims, the next-of-kin, the witnesses and each one of the parties to the proceeding that
participate in the [criminal investigations of the instant case]”.
10.
That the Commission considered that "the State has [not] submit[ed] sufficient
information to determine the progress made in complying with this measure of reparation"
and that “the brief information provided for by the State is outdated; that it does not
indicate the procedural situation of the accused, [the] stage of the proceedings, the actions
taken within the framework of these investigations or [the] probable date of the trial, for
example".
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11.
That before entering into the analysis of the foregoing, the Court needs to decide on
the State’s request as to the publication of the information presented in relation to the
investigations. In its report of November 14, 2008, the State requested the Tribunal “not to
include the information subjected to confidentiality of legal proceedings in any public