attack Objective No. 6 “Puente América” as, at that time, he did not have the capacity to do so satisfactorily and the other objectives were more relevant for the operation’s purposes. 189 The foregoing, allows the State to affirm that the Armed Forces did not have the collaboration and support of the paramilitary groups and, above all, that they did not act in coordination with them during the execution of Operation Genesis.190 D. The death of Marino López 107. On February 26, 1997, approximately 60 paramilitaries from the ACCU “Chocó” Bloc entered the settlement of Bijao,191 located in basin of the Cacarica River, Chocó department, Colombia. According to the evidence, they fired their rifles and launched grenades at the roofs of the houses, and sacked the homes, including that of Marino López. Following these acts, the paramilitaries assembled the inhabitants and ordered them to abandon the settlement. 192 189 According to Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría: the “objectives were in the center, to the north and to the south; the difficulties of executing that operation [were] very significant, because there were insufficient resources to support and sustain an operation at that time; most of the resources had been provided by the Command, becausde the Brigade did not have the capacity; […] what the intelligence tells the Commander is one thing, and what the Commander can do with the resources at hand is another. The Commander must prioritize objectives and take the decision: I’ll go north to attack, based on information about a group there, or I’ll go south and attack becasue the leader of the bloc is there, because military logic indicates that I must go after the leader of the bloc who is the one organizing all the criminal activities in the area. […] Therefore, he goes and takes the decision, and has the power to do so, to attack the objective to the south and not the objective to the north, Puente América.” Testimony of Colonel Luis Emilio Cardozo Santamaría, Expert witness proposed by the State, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights during the public hearing on February 12, 2013. 190 Cf. Voluntary confession made by Fredy Rendón Herrera before the Prosecutor General’s Office on October 24, 2007 (evidence file, folios 19229 and 19230) and statements of C.M.R., before the Prosecutor General’s Office, National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit of December 11 and 19, 2002 (evidence file, folios 612, 619 and 600). 191 Cf. Eighth Criminal Court of the Bogota Special Circuit, file 2009-063, defendant Rito Alejo del Río, judgment of August 23, 2012 (evidence file, folio 14803). Also, Video of the charges brought in the hearing on the partial accusation against Diego Luis Hinestroza Moreno, Medellin Justice and Peace Courts, May 30, 2008 (minutes 23:43 to 25:00 of the video) (evidence file, folio 1472). See also: Video of the charges brought in the hearing on the partial accusation against Luis Muentes Mendoza, 2008, Medellin Justice and Peace Courts (minutes 43:00 to 44:30 of the video) (evidence file, folio 1403); Voluntary confession of William Manuel Soto Salcedo before the Justice and Peace prosecutor on July 9, 2008 (minutes 01:20 to 02:20 of the video) (evidence file, folio 1533) Voluntary confession of Alberto García Sevilla before the Justice and Peace prosecutor on October 28, 2008 (minute 0:38 of the second video) (evidence file, folio 1548): “There were 60 of us and 60 of us were from the Self-Defense Forces”; voluntary confession of Diego Luis Hinestroza Moreno before the Justice and Peace prosecutor on April 2, 2008 (minutes 0:50 of the video) (evidence file, folio 19246): “We went there [in Bijao]; a fight too place there inside the village”; voluntary confession of Freddy Rendón Herrera before the Justice and Peace prosecutor on March 13, 2009 (minutes 00:00 to 00:40 of the video) (evidence file, folio 19231); Voluntary confession of Luis Muentes Mendoza before the Justice and Peace prosecutor on April 22, 2008 (minute 14:34) (evidence file, folio 19248); Testimony of J.V.R., cited in the decision on the legal situation of Rito Alejo del Río Rojas by the 14th Prosecutor of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit, case file 2332, of September 12, 2008 (evidence file, folio 1498): Testimony of J.A.Q., community leader, cited in the decision on the legal situation of Rito Alejo del Río Rojas by the 14th Prosecutor of the National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit, case file 2332, of September 12, 2008 (evidence file, folio 1502) and Testimony of Emedelia Palacios, widow of Marino López, before the 21st Special Prosecutor of the National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit of February 10, 2007, in Medellín (evidence file, folios 8925 and 8926). 192 In particular, they had been threatened by suggesting that groups that were even more cruel would be coming behind the paramilitaries, “to devour the people.” Cf. Video of the charges brought in the hearing on the partial accusation against Diego Luis Hinestroza Moreno of May 30, 2008, before the Medellin Justice and Peace Court (evidence file, video recording 27:50 to 28:16 folio 1472). See also: charges against Luis Muentes Mendoza, 2008 (evidence file, video recording 46:50 to 47:00 folio 1403); Testimony of J.V.R. cited in the decision bringing charges against Rito Alejo del Río. Proceeding 2332, of the Prosecutor General’s Office, National Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit, for the murder of Marino López Mena (evidence file, folio 8872) and Testimony of Luis Aristarco Hinestrosa on April 13, 2007, before the Human Rights Unit cited in Report No. 116 of the Technical Investigation Corps of November 9, 2009, to the 122nd and 48th Regional Prosecutors delegated to the Justice and Peace judges (evidence file, folios 17183 and 17266). See also, Eighth Criminal Court of the Bogota Special Circuit, file 2009-063, defendant Rito Alejo del Río, judgment of August 23, 2012 (evidence file, folio 14803). 42