and Cocarburos met the same fate, some murdered and others disappeared in a bid to counter workers' efforts to defend their interests.16 59. Mr. Omar de Jesús Correa Isaza testified as follows: The public order situation reached its worst point on December 6 or 8, when they murdered Julio César Uribe, who was president of the trade union and a council member in the Municipality of Puerto Nare. [...]Although the region was already pretty highly militarized prior to that event, it led to militarization of every nook and cranny of the Municipality. And yet, despite the militarization, there was no drop in the number of disappearances and murders. On the contrary, paramilitary squads directly commanded by the Fourteenth Brigade through the Bárbula Battalion billeted in Puerto Boyaca, patrolled the town as if they owned the place, threatening, intimidating, and murdering people [...]. Thus it came to pass that people were murdered 10 meters away from the police station and the police didn't see or hear anything. What I know if what everybody knows: that he was taken out of the jail and nothing more was heard of him, but the worrying thing in this case is that that night Navy Coast Guard Unit 12 was moored less than 50 meters away from the jail, while the municipality was completely militarized with checkpoints at all the entrances to the town, and yet that same night the town hall is flooded with leaflets signed by the FARC. The weird thing is that there was no kind of confrontation. [...] I filed this denunciation a long time ago, asking the Prosecutor General's Office to examine the municipal administration's typewriters to see if there were any signs that they had something to do with the leaflets found, but nothing was done about that. [...]The armed forces did absolutely nothing to find them. On the contrary, then lieutenant Bohorquez, Commander of the Bárbula Battalion […] spent his time threatening all of us trade union leaders for our alleged collaboration with the guerrilla groups.17 60. In their communication of July 11, 1991, the petitioners pointed out that it could not be concluded from a study of the statements given by inmates at the time who were not abducted that members of the FARC had been involved, because the versions they gave contradicted each other in several respects, such as whether those in uniform were or were not wearing FARC bracelets, whether they harangued all the inmates inviting them to escape or simply called out those they intended to take with them by name, and whether there were acts of violence or not. 61. In that same communication, the petitioners stated that page 73 of the file in Higher Court 9 in Medellín accusing Víctor Manuel Isaza of homicide, contains a certificate of Criminal Investigation Court 64 in Puerto Nare that literally reads as follows: "This office received the denunciation of said facts and judging by the way the unknown individuals acted when they entered the prison and abducted the four inmates, it is hard to believe that they were members of a subversive group. Rather, it appears that they were members of the paramilitary groups."18 62. As this report will point out in due course, the criminal investigations did not shed light on what happened to the victim. 16 Appendix. Statement by Mr. Francisco Javier Gómez to the Departmental State Attorney's Office in Medellín, on January 30, 1992. Appended to the comments of the petitioners received on March 23, 1992. 17 Appendix. Statement by Mr. Omar de Jesús Correa Isaza to the Departmental State Attorney's Office in Medellín, on January 30, 1992. Appended to the comments of the petitioners received on March 23, 1992. 18 Verbatim quotation included in the petitioners' written comments dated July 11, 1991.