44 96.26 During July 1997 the 2d Mobile Brigade was carrying out training activities in “El Barrancón”, a place near the municipalities of Charras and Mapiripán.45 96.27 In early 1997 the AUC held several meetings to organize their entry into the area of Mapiripán and the inhabitants of said municipality were declared to be military objectives by paramilitary leader Carlos Castaño Gil, because, “according to him, a consolidated front of the insurgency was operating there, with absolute control of a territory appropriate for a complete cycle of drug trafficking, planting, processing, and trading.”46 96.28 When the AUC arrived in the Municipality of Mapiripán, during the events of July 1997, neither the Mayor nor the officers of the Mayor’s office were in the town.47 The Facts of July 1997 96.29 Paragraphs 96.30 to 96.47 are the facts that this Court deems proven based on the acknowledgment of responsibility by the State, which includes “the facts stated in section B of Chapter VI ‘The Facts of July 1997’ of the application filed by the Inter-American Commission” (supra para. 34). 96.30 On July 12, 1997 approximately one hundred members of the AUC landed in the airport at San José de Guaviare on irregular flights coming from Neclocí and Apartadó and were picked up by members of the Army without the latter applying any sort of control measures. 96.31 According to the Attorney General’s Office, the Colombian Army allowed the airplanes that brought said paramilitary to land without recording them in the books or any other way, and allowed them to freely board the trucks that awaited the group there, “as if it were a military operation, customarily exempted from said control.” 96.32 The Colombian army provided transportation for the paramilitary to Mapiripán. The paramilitary were transported from the airport in two “reo” type trucks that the Army usually uses, which were authorized to enter the landing strip due to a call made by a person who identified himself as an officer of the “Joaquín París” battalion. The trucks went to a place near the so-called “Cattle Trail” which leads toward the plains and the jungle. They were joined on the road by paramilitary from Casanare and Meta and from there they went by river, through “El Barrancón” – where the 2d Mobile Brigade and the Marine Infantry were stationed– they continued their trip with no difficulty to Charras, on the other side of the Guaviare River, facing Mapiripán. During the trip from San José del Guaviare to Mapiripán the members of the paramilitary group went through the training areas of the troops of the 2d Mobile 45 See Judgment of February 15, 2005 issued by the Criminal Chamber of the High Court of the Court District of Bogotá (file with evidence tendered by the State, pages 4746 to 4749). 46 See June 21, 1999 ruling issued by the National Human Rights Unit (file with appendixes to the application, appendix 20, page 320); sworn statement rendered by expert witness Robin Kirk on February 15, 2005 (file with statements rendered before or authenticated by a notary public, page 4623), and indictment issued on November 16, 1999 by the Office of the Attorney General (file with appendixes to the application, appendix 1, page 42). 47 See statement of a witness in confidence, rendered before the Office of the Attorney General on July 24, 1997 (file with appendixes to the brief containing pleadings and motions, appendix 29, page 3389), and sworn statement rendered by expert witness Robin Kirk on February 15, 2005 (file with statements rendered before or authenticated by a notary public, page 4623).