-74inspection of the highway and trails between Pueblo Bello and San Pedro de Urabá in
compliance with its agreement to collaborate of August 9, 1991 (supra para.
95(134)).161
95(136) On November 27, 1991, the Office of the Delegate Attorney for the defense
of human rights decided:
FIRST: To absolve National Army Captain Álvaro Gómez Luque […], in his capacity as
Commander of the military base de San Pedro de Urabá, of all the charges laid against
him, for the facts investigated here, which allegedly occurred in that place on the night
of January 14, 1990, following the perpetration of the abduction of 43 peasants in the
jurisdiction of Pueblo Bello in the Municipality of Turbo (Ant.), on the said date [...]
SECOND: To absolve National Army Lieutenant Néstor Enrique Barrera Vega […] in his
capacity as Commander of the military checkpoint of San Pedro de Urabá, for the facts
investigated here, allegedly perpetrated at that military checkpoint, on the night of
January 14, 1990, following the perpetration of the abduction of 43 peasants in the
jurisdiction of Pueblo Bello of that locality, on the said date […]
[The Delegate Attorney’s Office decided to absolve them owing to “the doubt that arose
from the investigation into the disciplinary responsibility of the officers […] involved in
the facts that are being investigated.”]
[… The charges are: “That they committed omissions by failing to duly control the civil
population and to prevent the transit of the vehicles and also failing to capture the
kidnappers, seize their weapons and obtain the liberation of those abducted and protect
their lives, at the military roadblock under their command in San Pedro de Urabá, on the
night of Sunday, January 14, 1990, and by allowing the transit of the stolen trucks, with
license plates IB-3544 and UU-0783, through the military roadblock of San Pedro de
Urabá, transporting the 43 peasants who had been abducted in the jurisdiction of Pueblo
Bello in the Municipality of Turbo, Antioquia, by an armed group of approximately 30
individuals, who entered this jurisdiction violently at about 8:40 p.m. on that day,
facilitating the disappearance of the peasants […] because these vehicles were not
subjected to a search by [the soldiers under investigation], or by the soldiers under their
command, which could have thwarted the criminal act of the authors of the illegal
action, who immediately after having committed the act went to the Santa Mónica
ranch, passing by both the roadblock and the military base of San Pedro de Urabá…]
THIRD: […] To issue authenticated copies of [the statement of Rogelio de Jesús Escobar
Mejía and of the testimonies given by Jairo Zuluaga Quiceno and Guillermo Nicolás
Narváez Ramos] so that [any possible collaboration that Lieutenant Quiñones and
another two soldiers may have provided to the authors of the abduction for their alleged
transit through San Vicente del Congo and San Pedro can be investigated separately,
and also to investigate the conduct of the lieutenant and the four soldiers in San Pedro
de Urabá] […]
FIFTH: An appeal for reconsideration of judgment is admissible against this decision and
this should be filed by means of a brief stating the grounds at the time the person
concerned is notified or within the following five days […]162
95(137) Between November 1991 and May 1993, members of Amnesty International
sent communications to the Attorney General’s Office and several Ministries of the
Executive Branch, requesting that the investigations into the disappearance of the
Pueblo Bello peasants should continue.163
161
Cf. report of September 3, 1991, of the Special Investigations Office of the Judicial Police (file of
attachments to the application, tome III, attachment C13, folios 687 to 710).
162
Cf. decision of November 27, 1991, issued by the Office of the Delegate Attorney for the defense
of human rights (file of attachments to the answer to the application, attachment 1, folios 1685 to 1736).
163
Cf. Amnesty International letters (file of useful evidence submitted by the State, folios 4723 to
4725 and 5705 to 5708).
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