29 were not returned. The paramilitary group threatened to kill the herdsmen “if they made any more trouble,” so they did not insist. In an attempt to recover their livestock, they spoke to the secretary of the government of the Department, who told them that the livestock “was detained” and that they should not worry about it. Then they spoke to an officer of the 4th Brigade and asked for greater protection in the zone. The officer answered that the livestock and the zone were safe with the Army. Following the massacre, all the villagers displaced towards Puerto Valdivia. In Puerto Valdivia the displaced stayed at a secondary school. Two weeks later, the Army informed them that they could return home. By then, all the livestock had been removed from the region, through Puerto Valdivia. The displaced lost not only their legal papers, but also all their mementos, such as photographs, the pictures of saints that were hung up on the walls of their homes, and all their clothes and everything they had built up during their lifetime. Most of the displaced consider that they will continue to be displaced, because they have no hope of recovering what they had in El Aro, since “the situation is complicated, because the guerrilla is on one side and the paramilitary groups on the other.” The paramilitary groups have continued to steal livestock and murder people. The events in El Aro had huge financial and physical effects on all the families. The region was left in ruins. Almost all the families lost everything. Those who had livestock, the result of a whole life’s work, were left without anything. Those who had houses were left homeless, and those who had land, had to abandon it. Those whose homes had not been burnt down, had their furniture, their animals and their few possessions stolen. Very few people have been able to recover anything. The people have not returned to the zone because the guerrilla and the paramilitary groups are still present in the region, and they have looted the peasants’ few remaining possessions, stealing their mules and cattle, and preventing the people from prospering. The few residents who returned to El Aro have suffered a great deal and are in a very difficult situation. The life of the families changed a great deal after the paramilitary raid in El Aro. In order to remake their lives, they had to start off again from nothing, “undergoing hunger.” Many people did not return, especially those who lost family members. Many people have not been able to recover from the events and, now that they are old, it is much more difficult for them to recover financially. Some of the children of the alleged victims could not continue their studies. Many families are still afraid; many have not been able to find work, suffer from illnesses and are depressed, “as if they no longer wanted to live” and, at night, the children wake up screaming with nightmares. The family groups disintegrated. Some of the next of kin suffered psychological traumas owing to the events. c) Testimonies proposed by the State 1. Jorge Armando Otalora Gómez, Deputy Prosecutor General Following the events in La Granja, both the Police and the Ituango Sectional Prosecutor’s Office opened preliminary investigations into the assassinations that had occurred in that municipal district on June 11 and 12, 1996. Given “the gravity of the facts, the geographical complexity and the public order situation,” on November 20,