- 27 - the National Government undertook to grant the necessary guarantees for the UP to be able to function under the same conditions as the other political parties.78 75. The UP participated in the elections for the first time in 1986, with the PCC.79 From 1986 to 1994, the UP obtained significant representation in the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, in municipal town councils and mayors’ offices, and in the 1990 National Constituent Assembly.80 In the 1994 elections, Manuel Cepeda Vargas was the only and last senator elected by a national constituency in representation of this political movement,81 “a position that he assumed in a predominantly bipartisan chamber (91%).”82 76. The Colombian Ombudsman stated that “there is a direct relationship between the emergence, activity of and electoral support for the Patriotic Union and the murder of its activists and leaders in regions where this party’s presence was interpreted as a danger to the preservation of the privileges of certain groups.”83 Thus, after 1985, several of its leaders and representatives were victims of murder or attempts on their life, including the presidential candidates, Jaime Pardo Leal and Bernardo Jaramillo 78 Cf. Report of the Ombudsman entitled “Estudio de casos de homicidio de miembros de la Unión Patriótica y Esperanza, Paz y Libertad,” supra note 76, folio 1214. 79 Cf. Report of the Ombudsman entitled “Estudio de casos de homicidio de miembros de la Unión Patriótica y Esperanza, Paz y Libertad,” supra note 76, folios 1214 to 1215. 80 The Ombudsman indicated that, in the 1986 elections, the UP obtained more votes than the Colombian left had ever received, resulting in the election of five senators, nine representatives to the Chamber, 14 departmental deputies and 241 counselors, and the appointment of 23 municipal mayors. In the electoral period from 1988 to 1990, the UP obtained the election of 15 mayors and 13 deputies. In the period from 1990 to 1992, the UP obtained one senator with his substitute and four representatives to the Chamber with their substitutes and, in the election for the 1990 National Constituent Assembly it obtained two members, one its own and another by convergence. In 1991, one senator and three representatives to the Chamber were elected for the UP. Cf. Report of the Ombudsman “Estudio de casos de homicidio de miembros de la Unión Patriótica y Esperanza, Paz y Libertad,” supra note 76, folios 1214 to 1216. 81 The State alleged that Mr. Cepeda Vargas was elected in 1994 as a Senator for the PCC and not for the UP, based on a certification stating this issued by the National Electoral Council on June 15, 1994. Cf. certification issued by the National Electoral Council in favor of Manuel Cepeda Vargas on June 15, 1994 (evidence file, tome III, attachment 2 to the application, folio 1303). However, in general, the different State organs and authorities, as well as the parties to these proceedings, recognize that the Senator was the representative of the UP and a member of the PCC. Cf. Decision issued by the Santafé de Bogotá Second District Prosecutor’s office under file No. 1436444/96 in 1999 (evidence file, tome III, attachment 29 to the application, folios, 1473 and 1482); Indictment issued by the National Human Rights Unit of the office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation in investigation No. 172 on October 20, 1997 (evidence file, tome III, attachment 30 to the application, folio 1534) and judgment handed down by the Third Criminal Court of the Santafé de Bogotá Specialized Circuit in Investigation No. 5393-3 on December 16, 1999, supra note 75, folio 1735. 82 Opinion provided before notary public (affidavit) by expert witness Eduardo Cifuentes Muñoz, supra note 77, folio 8358. 83 Report of the Ombudsman entitled “Estudio de casos de homicidio de miembros de la Unión Patriótica y Esperanza, Paz y Libertad”, supra note 76, folio 1290. Similarly, the Inter-American Commission indicated that “[i]n the first five years of its existence (1985-1989), the violence was characterized by being selective and relatively concentrated in the regions with the greatest political and electoral success.” Cf. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Second report on the situation of human rights in Colombia, October 14, 1993 (evidence file, tome VII, attachment 91 to the brief with pleadings, motions and evidence, folio 3552). Also, the expert witness Andreu Guzmán affirmed that “[n]umerous massacres were perpetrated in regions and municipalities where the Patriotic Union (UP) could obtain significant results in the 1986 and 1988 elections or in those where it did obtain such results. In the latter municipalities, the purpose of the massacres was to modify the electoral behavior of the population and to punish it for supporting the UP candidates. Paramilitary groups, such as Muerte a Revolucionarios del Nordeste in the case of the massacre of Segovia (Antioquia, November 11, 1988), claimed to have perpetrated these massacres, although the judicial investigations or those of the Attorney General’s office revealed subsequently that, members of the Army in coordination with groups of armed civilians organized by the Armed Forces, operated behind these paramilitary symbols.” Cf. Opinion provided before notary public (affidavit) by expert witness Federico Andreu Guzmán on January 8, 2010 (evidence file, tome XX, folio 8324).