18
and woman arrived, and he asked if his godfather Andrés had left a mule, and the
declarant answered no; that the Army group captured them, they sat down to talk,
and at about four in the afternoon they were taken away; that he was dressed in red
pants and a red shirt and she was in blue jeans and a black shirt; and that the
persons in the group appeared to be from the National Army. When the witness was
shown a photograph of Isidro Caballero-Delgado, she said that he was the person
who had been detained. In her second statement she had added that one of the
members of the military group was called "my Sergeant" by the others. Moreover, in
her third statement the witness added that about ten minutes before the young man
and woman arrived, an Army group had arrived and was sitting in a neighboring
kiosk near the house. When the young man and woman left, another group of
soldiers, who were on a hill about 120 meters from the house, came running down to
catch up with them, and those that were in the house joined them. There were about
fifteen that came down the hill and about four that were in the house.
49.
In addition to confirming her earlier testimony the witness answered the
questions put to her by the Government representative. She testified, among other
things, that the person who came to her house differed from the photograph that
they had shown her in that he did not have a mustache, and that the soldiers who
came to her house had their faces covered with a red cloth. On being questioned by
the Commission Delegate, she testified that the soldiers arrived at about noon, asked
her if she had weapons of the guerrillas, and searched the house.
50.
The Government has sent a copy of the testimony, rendered by Gonzalo
Arias-Alturo on December 19, 1994 before the Assistant Attorney of the General
Office for the Attention and Processing of Complaints of the Public Defender's Office;
the declarant testified that on January 3, 1989, two professional counter-guerrilla
groups were reunited to organize a special Delfín group, of which he was a member,
and that group was attached to the Santander Battalion; that on January 9 they
moved to the Morrison Base, and there General Alfonso Baca-Perillas, who
coordinated operations in the zone, visited them; that the group was organized in
San Alberto under the command of Captain Héctor Alirio Forero-Quintero; that the
group moved toward Minas, which is a town on the highway to the coast between
San Alberto and Morrison, and Captain Forero-Quintero told them that their mission
was to capture a leader of the M-19 named Isidro Caballero-Delgado; that on
February 6 they were told that Caballero-Delgado was in the zone and should not be
detained in the presence of many people; that at about 4:30 Sergeant Vanegas
advised them that he had talked with Caballero-Delgado, who told him that he was
going to Bucaramanga; that at about 6:30 the same Sergeant said that CaballeroDelgado had boarded a COOPETRAN bus; that Captain Forero-Quintero set up a road
block that detained the bus, and Luis Gonzalo Pinzón-Fontecha boarded the bus and
ordered all the passengers to get out and present their identification; that when they
identified Caballero-Delgado they detained him together with María Del Carmen
Santana who was traveling with him, and they turned them over to the
paramilitaries; that at about 11:30 pm he arrived at the Riverandia Farm with
Captain Forero-Quintero and others and asked for Captain Jorge Enrique GarcíaGarcía; that they found him with Caballero-Delgado and María del Carmen Santana
who were gagged with adhesive tape, and there was also another person detained;
that they had pulled out part of Caballero-Delgado's mustache; that Captain Forero
said to Segundo, the paramilitary commander whose family name he does not know,
that he already knew what they had to do with the detainees; that Segundo called to
Vicente Pinzón-Fontecha and Einer Pinzón-Pinzón to take the three detainees, and
that the witness also went with them; that they cut off the legs of the detainees so