59 officers José Miller Ureña Díaz and Juan Carlos Gamarra Polo and officers Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui Ramírez, Colonel Lino Hernando Sánchez Prado, commander of the 2d Mobile Brigade, and Lieutenant Colonel Hernán Orozco Castro, acting commander of the “Joaquín París” battalion, should be investigated and heard by a military criminal court. In this regard, it argued that: […] The accusations against military staff in the proceedings undertaken by the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Attorney General originated in Military Criminal Justice itself, when an investigative proceeding was opened by the Eleventh Military Criminal Trial Court attached to the Joaquín París Battalion. […] […] the criminal proceeding must be conducted with all due guarantees for the accused, based on the firm premise that the remiss conduct attributed to the military derives unequivocally from the duties of their military function, from preeminent constitutional and legal mandates, and in our criminal law, all remiss functions of a military must be directly and closely related to their military service role. This is the essence of the primary reason for military jurisdiction.92 96.91 On June 21, 1999 the Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Attorney General decided: FIRST: NOT TO ACCEPT the reasons given by the Commander of the National Army as Military Criminal Trial Judge, to hear the criminal investigation on the facts known as the “Mapiripán Massacre”, against Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui Ramírez, Colonel Lino Hernando Sánchez Prado, Lieutenant Colonel Hernán Orozco Castro, Sergeant José Miller Ureña Diaz and Sergeant Juan Carlos Gamarra Polo. SECOND: TO ORDER that the case file against the aforementioned officers and noncommissioned officers be remitted to the H. High Council of the Judiciary -Disciplinary Jurisdictional Chamber-93. 96.92 On August 18, 1999, after an incidental plea regarding impediment, the High Council of the Judiciary decided that the criminal investigation against Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui Ramírez and against Lieutenant Colonel Hernán Orozco Castro for the crimes of homicide, aggravated kidnappings and falsifying a public document, allegedly attributed to them, and for the crimes of terrorism and conspiracy to commit a crime, regarding which they were investigated, would be heard by a military criminal court. In this regard, it deemed that […] given the existence of active service by Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui Ramírez there is undoubtedly a link between that service and the crimes that he allegedly committed, by omission and by action, as he could only allegedly commit them while exercising his functions. […] the conduct in which Lieutenant Colonel Hernán Orozco Castro allegedly incurred constitutes an omission regarding his functions, since being under the Commander of the Joaquín París Battalion, when he learned of the facts that were taking place in the town of Mapiripán, he did not carry out his constitutional and legal functions of protecting the lives, honor and property of the inhabitants, which he had the obligation to carry out under the military jurisdiction, and this gives rise to the link between the service he provided and the lack of consistent action regarding the information he received over the telephone, from which he learned of the criminal acts that were being committed in that town, for which reason this investigation will be heard by Military Criminal Justice, where it will be remitted for this purpose. 92 See positive clash of jurisdiction invoked by the Commander of the Army before the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office June 2, 1999 (file with appendixes to the application, appendix 52, pages 791, 792, 795 a, g, s, v and xx). 93 See June 21, 1999 decision by the Office of the Attorney General (file with appendixes to the application brief, appendix 53, page 810).