47 96.42 The security forces arrived in Mapiripán on July 22, 1997, after the massacre had ended and subsequent to the arrival of the media, when the paramilitary had already destroyed much of the physical evidence. 96.43 The incursion of the paramilitary in Mapiripán was an act that had been meticulously planned several months before June 1997, carried out with logistic preparatory work and with the collaboration, acquiescence, and omissions by members of the Army. Participation of agents of the State in the massacre was not limited to facilitating entry of the AUC into the region, as the authorities knew of the attack against the civilian population in Mapiripán and they did not take the necessary steps to protect the members of the community. 96.44 Omissions by the VII Brigade are not merely non-fulfillment of its legal duty to control the area, bur rather, according to the Attorney General’s Office, they involved “abstaining from action, necessarily in connivance with the illegal armed group, as well as effective positive attitudes tending to enable the paramilitary to attain their objective, as they undoubtedly would not have been able to act without that support.” 96.45 Brigadier General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui Ramírez apparently took steps to cover up the omission. For example, he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Orozco Castro to modify the content of official letter 2919 of July 15, 1997, which reported on the facts that were taking place in Mapiripán. In this regard, Lieutenant Orozco Castro stated that one month after the original official letter had been sent: […] the pressure began, the intimations for him to change the official letter. General Jaime Humberto Uscátegui called [him] every day, concerned about the original official letter[. Lieutenant Orozco Castro had the] original and was forced to change it to save the prestige of a General, to avoid a scandal, [he] was very frightened, [he] was threatened indirectly, and [he] saw no other option than to change the official letter. 96.46 Omissions by the VII Brigade included lack of collaboration with the judicial authorities who sought to visit the site of the facts. In this regard, José Luis Parra Vásquez, 12th Deputy Public Prosecutor before the Regional Judges, attached to the investigation, stated that: Despite the fact that there were four or five helicopters […] at the Joaquín París Battalion, [they] were not allowed to use one to go to Mapiripán together with the Presidential delegate, because they were subject to orders by General Harold Bedoya and General Manuel José Bonet, who were at […] el Barrancón in the Department of Guaviare, five minutes flying time from San José. […] The trip was finally made 24 hours later in an airplane of the Drug Enforcement Police […]. Therefore, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, together with members of the Security Forces and a delegate of the Presidency of the Republic, were only able to visit Mapiripán on July 23, 1997. 96.47 The methodology followed in executing the massacre and destroying the bodies of the victims, together with the terror spread among the surviving inhabitants of Mapiripán to cause their displacement, have obstructed full identification of the victims of the massacre, despite the fact that there is certainty that a large number of individuals were tortured and murdered during those days in July 1997.