Palace of Justice siege
Encyclopedia
The Palace of Justice siege (Toma del Palacio de Justicia in Spanish) was a 1985 attack against the Supreme Court of Colombia
, in which members of the M-19
guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá
, Colombia
, and held the Supreme Court
hostage
, intending to hold a trial against President
Belisario Betancur
. Hours later, after a military raid, the incident left all the rebels and 11 of the 25 Supreme Court Justices dead.
and 20 other judges. Once in the building the first hostage the Guerrilla group was asking for was Supreme Court Justice and President of the Constitutional Court then called Sala Constitucional, Manuel Gaona Cruz:es:Manuel Gaona Cruz who was in charge of delivering the opinion of the Court in regard to the constitutionality of the Extradition Treaty between Colombia and the United States.
The President of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Alfonso Reyes, was among those taken. About three hours after the initial seizure, Army troops rescued about 200 hostages from the lower three floors of the courthouse; the surviving gunmen and remaining hostages occupied the upper two floors.
A recording was delivered to a radio station soon after the seizure, saying that the M-19 group had taken over the building "in the name of peace and social justice". From the Supreme Court, the M-19 members demanded via telephone that President Belisario Betancur come to the Palace of Justice in order to stand trial and negotiate. The president refused and ordered an emergency cabinet session.
troops stormed the Palace of Justice, after having occupied some of the lower floors during the first day of the siege. After surrounding the building with EE-9 Cascavel
armored cars and soldiers with automatic weapons, they stormed the building sometime after 2 pm. The EE-9s knocked down the building's massive doorway, and even made some direct hits against the structure's external walls.
The official version of the attack holds that, in an effort to complete one of the 2 objectives they had assaulted the palace for, the M-19 Guerrillas burnt different criminal records containing proof and warrants against many members of the group and it is also believed, but argued whether they also burnt records against Pablo Escobar
, one of the nation's biggest drug trafickers at the time. However, "no one knows with absolutely certainty what happened. The results of the tests carried out later by ballistics experts and investigators demonstrated the most likely cause to have been the recoil effect of the army's rockets. Tests proved that if fired by a soldier standing twenty feet of wood-lined walls of the library that housed Colombian legal archives, the intense heat generated by the rocket's rear blast could have ignited the wooden paneling. In any event, in a shelved area stacked high with old papers, files, books, and newspapers, the quantity of explosives used by the military virtually guaranteed a conflagration." In total, over 6000 different documents were burned. The fire lasted about 2 days, even with efforts from firemen to try and smother the flames. An investigated theory to the "disappearance" of the missing entities in the siege is that they were charred in the fire, and were not able to be identified in any way, and without having been found, these entities are regarded as missing in action. This theory is still being studied in the different trials of the case.
More than 100 people died during the final assault on the Palace. Those killed consisted of hostages, soldiers, and all of the guerrillas, including their leader Andrés Almarales and four other senior commanders of M-19. After the raid, another Supreme Court justice died in a hospital after suffering a heart attack
.
with the government.
After the siege, firemen rushed to the site of the assault, and smothered the few flames left in the palace, these along with other rescue groups, then clean the debris and rubble left after the siege.
President Betancur went on national TV on the night of the seventh, saying he took full responsibility for the "terrible nightmare." He offered condolences to the families of those who died—civilians and rebels alike—and said he would continue to look for a peaceful solution with the rebels. Exactly a week later, on 14 November, he would offer condolences for another tragedy: the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz
volcano
, which killed 25,000 people in the Armero tragedy. "We have had one national tragedy after another", he said.
This siege led to the creation of the AFEUR
unit within the Colombian Army
to manage this kind of situation. Colombia's Armed Forces did not have antiterrorist units specifically trained for urban operations before the siege, and some partially blamed the final outcome on the relative inexperience of the personnel assigned to the task.
Author Ana Carrigan, who quoted the June 1986 report in her book on the siege and originally dismissed any such links between the M-19 and the drug mafia, told Cromos magazine in late 2005 that she now believes that the mafia may have financially supported the M-19.
On the same day of the siege, the Supreme Court's docket apparently called for the beginning of pending deliberations on the constitutionality of the Colombia-United States extradition treaty. The M-19 was publicly opposed to extradition on nationalist grounds. Several of the magistrates had been previously threatened by drug lords in order to prevent any possibility of a positive decision on the treaty. One year after the siege, the treaty was declared unconstitutional.
Former Assistant of the Colombia Attorney General, National Deputy Comptroller, Author and destacated Professor Jose Mauricio Gaona , along with the Former Secreatry of Justice and Colombian British Ambassador Carlos Medellín Becerra, the sons of two of the murdered Supreme Court magistrates, Manuel Gaona Cruz and Carlos Medellín, have permanently pushed for further and broader lines of investigations related not only to the presumed links between the M-19 and the Medellín Cartel
drug lords, but also to the any other possible links between the investigations performed by the Justices against members of the Armed Forces. Congressman
Gustavo Petro
, a former M-19 guerrilla, has denied these accusations and dismissed them as based upon the inconsistent testimonies of drug lords. Petro says that the surviving members of the M-19 do admit to their share of responsibility for the tragic events of the siege, on behalf of the entire organization, but deny any links to the drug trade.
"24-hour coup", during which the military was in control of the situation.
According to Ana Carrigan's 1993 book The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy, Supreme Court Chief Justice Alfonso Reyes was apparently burned alive during the assault, as someone incinerated his body after pouring gasoline over it. The book also asserts that, after the siege was over, some twenty-eight bodies were dumped into a mass grave and apparently soaked with acid, in order to make identification difficult. Carrigan argued that the bodies of the victims of the Nevado del Ruiz
volcano eruption, which buried the city of Armero
and killed more than 20,000 people, were dumped into the same mass grave, making any further forensic investigations
impractical.
Despite numerous investigations and lawsuits to date, impunity
prevailed for most of the subsequent decades. Ana Carrigan asserted in her 1993 book that "Colombia has moved on... Colombia has forgotten the Palace of Justice siege", in much the same way that, in her opinion, Colombians have also forgotten or adopted a position of denial
towards other tragic events such as the 1928 Santa Marta Massacre. No definite responsibility has been fixed on the government or on the surviving members of the M-19 movement who were pardoned after they demobilized.
Eduardo Umaña, the first attorney representing some of the families of the people killed during the siege, was assassinated in 1998 and several members of those families had to flee to Europe because of death threats against them.
it is suspected that at least 11 people disappeared during the events of the siege, most of them cafeteria
workers, and their fate is unknown. It has been speculated that their remains may be among a number of unidentified and charred bodies, one of which was identified through DNA testing done by the National University of Colombia
, leaving the fates of the other 10 still in question. http://www.elespectador.com/historico/2005-11-06/contenido_MI-5856.htm
According to Ana Carrington, one of the disappeared was a law student and M-19 guerrilla, Irma Franco. Carrington says Franco was seen by several hostages. She also states that the guerrilla left with several hostages and was never seen again. The Special Commission of Inquiry confirmed Franco's disappearance, and the judges requested that the investigation of her case be thoroughly pursued.
One week after the siege, M-19 released a communique to the press claiming that six leaders, including Franco, and "seven other fighters" had all been "disappeared and murdered" by the army. From the tapes of the military and police inter-communications it is known that army intelligence arrested at least seventeen people in the course of the two-day siege. None of the M-19 leaders, with the exception of Andrés Almarales
, were ever identified in the city morgue.
Some of their relatives and some human rights organizations have claimed that they could have been taken alive by the military and then killed outside or inside the building, possibly after being interrogated and tortured.
The events surrounding the Palace of Justice siege received renewed media coverage in Colombia during the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. Among other outlets, the country's main daily El Tiempo, the weekly El Espectador
, and the Cromos magazine published several articles, interviews and opinion pieces on the matter, including stories about the survivors, as well as the plight of the victims' relatives and those of the missing. http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/proy_2005/proy_palacio/home/index.htmlhttp://www.cromos.com.co/historico/2005-11-25/contenido_MI-3152.htm
in order to investigate the siege. The Commission officially began its work on November 3, 2005 and according to one of its members, Judge Jorge Aníbal Gómez.
Former Col. Sánchez was then detained. In May 2007, former Col. Sánchez has been questioned by prosecutors about his possible role in the disappearance of Irma Franco and at least two cafeteria workers, who would have left the Palace alive. Sánchez rejected the charges and proclaimed his innocence. He accepted that he could have received the order to cover the exit of some hostages from the Palace of Justice.
, the television anchorwoman who was romantically involved with Pablo Escobar
from 1983 to 1987 and the author of "Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar" (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), was asked to testify in the reopened case of the Palace of Justice siege, in order to confirm the events described in "That Palace in Flames" and pages 230 to 266 of her memoir. In the Colombian Consulate in Miami, where she was granted political asylum on June 3, 2010, she described the drug lord's relationship with the Sandinista Junta
and the M-19
and a meeting of Escobar and the rebel group commander, Ivan Marino Ospina in which she had been present, two weeks before the latter was killed by the Army on 29 August 1985. She said that, in mid 1986, Escobar had told her that he had paid the rebels one million dollars in cash and another in arms and explosives to steal his files from the Palace of Justice before the Supreme Court could begin their study to decide on the extradition of the leading members of the cocaine cartels to the United States of America. During the testimonial, that lasted five hours, Vallejo also described sixteen photographs of bodies that had been anonymously sent to her in 1986. According to her, Escobar identified them as the employees of the Palace cafeteria and two rebel women who had been detained by the Army after the siege, tortured and disappeared, on orders of Colonel Edilberto Sánchez, the director of B-2, Military Intelligence. In October 2008, excerpts of Virginia Vallejo's testimonial, given under gag order, appeared in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. On radio stations, Vallejo accused the Colombian General's Attorney's Office of filtering it to the media and of adulterating the contents to favor the military and former presidential candidate Alberto Santofimio
.
s after the siege.
The President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe
, reacted by declaring that he was "sad and hurt" by the decision. He announced his intention of seeking changes to the way military are judged in Colombia and asked for jail time for those he called the "instigators" of the massacre. Uribe also had a meeting with the military command to find ways to protect them from "judiciary decisions that interfere with their work".
Nevertheless, Colombia's General Attorney has declared that crimes against humanity took place during the siege, which has allowed for the continued processing of another colonel and one general involved in the incident. María Stella Jara, the judge that handed the sentence to Colonel Plazas left the country after receiving multiple death treats to her and her son. She and her family had to live under heavy surveillance for the duration of the trial
Supreme Court of Colombia
The Supreme Court of Colombia in Bogotá is the highest judicial body in civil and penal matters and issues of criminal and civil procedure in Colombia...
, in which members of the M-19
19th of April Movement
The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...
guerrilla group took over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, and held the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Colombia
The Supreme Court of Colombia in Bogotá is the highest judicial body in civil and penal matters and issues of criminal and civil procedure in Colombia...
hostage
Hostage
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
, intending to hold a trial against President
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur
Belisario Betancur Cuartas is a Colombian statesman, who as a member of the Colombian Conservative Party was President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.- Biographic data :...
. Hours later, after a military raid, the incident left all the rebels and 11 of the 25 Supreme Court Justices dead.
The siege
On 6 November 1985, 35 guerrillas burst into the Palace of Justice after arriving there in a stolen truck. The rebels killed the building's administrator and its few security guards, taking 300 people hostage, including the 24 justicesAssociate Justice
Associate Justice or Associate Judge is the title for a member of a judicial panel who is not the Chief Justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the United States Supreme Court and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth...
and 20 other judges. Once in the building the first hostage the Guerrilla group was asking for was Supreme Court Justice and President of the Constitutional Court then called Sala Constitucional, Manuel Gaona Cruz:es:Manuel Gaona Cruz who was in charge of delivering the opinion of the Court in regard to the constitutionality of the Extradition Treaty between Colombia and the United States.
The President of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
Alfonso Reyes, was among those taken. About three hours after the initial seizure, Army troops rescued about 200 hostages from the lower three floors of the courthouse; the surviving gunmen and remaining hostages occupied the upper two floors.
A recording was delivered to a radio station soon after the seizure, saying that the M-19 group had taken over the building "in the name of peace and social justice". From the Supreme Court, the M-19 members demanded via telephone that President Belisario Betancur come to the Palace of Justice in order to stand trial and negotiate. The president refused and ordered an emergency cabinet session.
The assault
The operation to retake the building was led by General Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, commander of the Thirteenth Army Brigade in Bogotá; he appointed Colonel Alfonso Plazas, commander of an armored cavalry battalion, to personally oversee the operation. The retaking of the building began that day and ended on 7 November, when ArmyColombian Army
The National Army of Colombia is the land military force of the government of Colombia and the largest service of the Colombian Armed Forces...
troops stormed the Palace of Justice, after having occupied some of the lower floors during the first day of the siege. After surrounding the building with EE-9 Cascavel
EE-9 Cascavel
The EE-9 Cascavel is a 6 x 6 armoured car developed in the 1970s by Engesa of Brazil. It used as many commercially available parts as possible. It also shares many components with the EE-11 Urutu APC...
armored cars and soldiers with automatic weapons, they stormed the building sometime after 2 pm. The EE-9s knocked down the building's massive doorway, and even made some direct hits against the structure's external walls.
The official version of the attack holds that, in an effort to complete one of the 2 objectives they had assaulted the palace for, the M-19 Guerrillas burnt different criminal records containing proof and warrants against many members of the group and it is also believed, but argued whether they also burnt records against Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
, one of the nation's biggest drug trafickers at the time. However, "no one knows with absolutely certainty what happened. The results of the tests carried out later by ballistics experts and investigators demonstrated the most likely cause to have been the recoil effect of the army's rockets. Tests proved that if fired by a soldier standing twenty feet of wood-lined walls of the library that housed Colombian legal archives, the intense heat generated by the rocket's rear blast could have ignited the wooden paneling. In any event, in a shelved area stacked high with old papers, files, books, and newspapers, the quantity of explosives used by the military virtually guaranteed a conflagration." In total, over 6000 different documents were burned. The fire lasted about 2 days, even with efforts from firemen to try and smother the flames. An investigated theory to the "disappearance" of the missing entities in the siege is that they were charred in the fire, and were not able to be identified in any way, and without having been found, these entities are regarded as missing in action. This theory is still being studied in the different trials of the case.
More than 100 people died during the final assault on the Palace. Those killed consisted of hostages, soldiers, and all of the guerrillas, including their leader Andrés Almarales and four other senior commanders of M-19. After the raid, another Supreme Court justice died in a hospital after suffering a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
Aftermath
The siege of the Palace of Justice and the subsequent raid was one of the deadliest attacks in Colombia in its war with leftist rebels. The M-19 group was still a potent force after the raid, but was severely hampered by the deaths of five of its leaders. In March 1990 it signed a peace treatyPeace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...
with the government.
After the siege, firemen rushed to the site of the assault, and smothered the few flames left in the palace, these along with other rescue groups, then clean the debris and rubble left after the siege.
President Betancur went on national TV on the night of the seventh, saying he took full responsibility for the "terrible nightmare." He offered condolences to the families of those who died—civilians and rebels alike—and said he would continue to look for a peaceful solution with the rebels. Exactly a week later, on 14 November, he would offer condolences for another tragedy: the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz
Nevado del Ruiz
The Nevado del Ruiz, also known as La Mesa de Herveo or Kumanday in the language of the local pre-Columbian indigenous people, is a volcano located on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a stratovolcano, composed of many...
volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
, which killed 25,000 people in the Armero tragedy. "We have had one national tragedy after another", he said.
This siege led to the creation of the AFEUR
Agrupación de Fuerzas Especiales Antiterroristas Urbanas
The Agrupación de Fuerzas Especiales Antiterroristas Urbanas is an elite unit of the Colombian Army, whose primary mission is to perform counter-terrorist operations and hostage rescues based on stealth, surprise and team work.VIP protection is another task of the unit...
unit within the Colombian Army
Colombian Army
The National Army of Colombia is the land military force of the government of Colombia and the largest service of the Colombian Armed Forces...
to manage this kind of situation. Colombia's Armed Forces did not have antiterrorist units specifically trained for urban operations before the siege, and some partially blamed the final outcome on the relative inexperience of the personnel assigned to the task.
Dead magistrates
The eleven magistrates killed were:- Manuel Gaona Cruz
- Alfonso Reyes Echandía
- Fabio Calderón Botero
- Dario Velásquez Gaviria
- Eduardo Gnecco Correa
- Carlos Medellín Forero
- Ricardo Medina Moyano
- Alfonso Patiño RosselliAlfonso Patiño RosselliAlfonso Patiño Rosselli was a Colombian jurist and diplomat who died in the 1985 Palace of Justice Siege by the M-19 where he was a Magistrate and President of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Colombia...
- Horacio Montoya Gil
- Pedro Elías Serrano Abadía
- Fanny González Franco
- Dante Luis Fiorillo Porras
Alleged Mafia links
The U.S. and Colombian governments shortly after the siege asserted that drug lords masterminded the operation in order to get rid of various criminal files lost during the event. The Special Commission of Inquiry, established by the Betancur government after intense public pressure, released a June 1986 report which concluded that this was not the case.Author Ana Carrigan, who quoted the June 1986 report in her book on the siege and originally dismissed any such links between the M-19 and the drug mafia, told Cromos magazine in late 2005 that she now believes that the mafia may have financially supported the M-19.
On the same day of the siege, the Supreme Court's docket apparently called for the beginning of pending deliberations on the constitutionality of the Colombia-United States extradition treaty. The M-19 was publicly opposed to extradition on nationalist grounds. Several of the magistrates had been previously threatened by drug lords in order to prevent any possibility of a positive decision on the treaty. One year after the siege, the treaty was declared unconstitutional.
Former Assistant of the Colombia Attorney General, National Deputy Comptroller, Author and destacated Professor Jose Mauricio Gaona , along with the Former Secreatry of Justice and Colombian British Ambassador Carlos Medellín Becerra, the sons of two of the murdered Supreme Court magistrates, Manuel Gaona Cruz and Carlos Medellín, have permanently pushed for further and broader lines of investigations related not only to the presumed links between the M-19 and the Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "drug suppliers and smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The drug cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and...
drug lords, but also to the any other possible links between the investigations performed by the Justices against members of the Armed Forces. Congressman
Congress of Colombia
The Congress of the Republic of Colombia is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature.The Congress of Colombia consists of the 102-seat Senate , and the 166-seat Chamber of Representatives ...
Gustavo Petro
Gustavo Petro
Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego is a Colombian politician of the Political Independent movement Progresistas . As a young man he fought with the 19th of April Movement, which later evolved into the Alianza Democrática M-19. He then became active in newly-established Alianza Democrática M-19...
, a former M-19 guerrilla, has denied these accusations and dismissed them as based upon the inconsistent testimonies of drug lords. Petro says that the surviving members of the M-19 do admit to their share of responsibility for the tragic events of the siege, on behalf of the entire organization, but deny any links to the drug trade.
Impunity
Later investigations and commentators have considered both the M-19 and the military as responsible for the deaths of the justices and civilians inside the building. Some have blamed President Belisario Betancur for not taking the necessary actions or for failing to negotiate, and others have commented on the possibility of a sort of de factoDe facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
"24-hour coup", during which the military was in control of the situation.
According to Ana Carrigan's 1993 book The Palace of Justice: A Colombian Tragedy, Supreme Court Chief Justice Alfonso Reyes was apparently burned alive during the assault, as someone incinerated his body after pouring gasoline over it. The book also asserts that, after the siege was over, some twenty-eight bodies were dumped into a mass grave and apparently soaked with acid, in order to make identification difficult. Carrigan argued that the bodies of the victims of the Nevado del Ruiz
Nevado del Ruiz
The Nevado del Ruiz, also known as La Mesa de Herveo or Kumanday in the language of the local pre-Columbian indigenous people, is a volcano located on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a stratovolcano, composed of many...
volcano eruption, which buried the city of Armero
Armero
The Armero tragedy was one of the major consequences of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia on November 13, 1985...
and killed more than 20,000 people, were dumped into the same mass grave, making any further forensic investigations
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
impractical.
Despite numerous investigations and lawsuits to date, impunity
Impunity
Impunity means "exemption from punishment or loss or escape from fines". In the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims' right to justice and redress...
prevailed for most of the subsequent decades. Ana Carrigan asserted in her 1993 book that "Colombia has moved on... Colombia has forgotten the Palace of Justice siege", in much the same way that, in her opinion, Colombians have also forgotten or adopted a position of denial
Denial
Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.The subject may use:* simple denial: deny the reality of the...
towards other tragic events such as the 1928 Santa Marta Massacre. No definite responsibility has been fixed on the government or on the surviving members of the M-19 movement who were pardoned after they demobilized.
Eduardo Umaña, the first attorney representing some of the families of the people killed during the siege, was assassinated in 1998 and several members of those families had to flee to Europe because of death threats against them.
The missing
| The eleven missing http://www.elespectador.com/historico/2005-11-06/contenido_MI-5856.htm Photos of the missing |
|
|---|---|
| Name | Occupation |
| Bernardo Beltrán Fernández | Cafeteria waiter |
| Héctor Jaime Beltrán Fuentes | Cafeteria waiter |
| Ana Rosa Castilblanco* | Assistant chef |
| David Celis | Cafeteria Chef |
| Norma Constanza Esguerra | Sold homemade pastries in cafeteria |
| Cristina Guarín Cortés | Teller in cafeteria |
| Gloria Stella Lizarazo Figueroa |
Cafeteria employee |
| Luz Mary Portela León | Cafeteria dishwasher |
| Carlos Augusto Vera Rodríguez | Cafeteria manager |
| Gloria Anzola de Lanao | Niece of Aydee Anzola, state official |
| Irma Franco Pineda | Law student, M-19 member |
it is suspected that at least 11 people disappeared during the events of the siege, most of them cafeteria
Cafeteria
A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
workers, and their fate is unknown. It has been speculated that their remains may be among a number of unidentified and charred bodies, one of which was identified through DNA testing done by the National University of Colombia
National University of Colombia
The Universidad Nacional de Colombia , also called UNAL or just UN, is a public, national, coeducational, research university, located primarily in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, Colombia...
, leaving the fates of the other 10 still in question. http://www.elespectador.com/historico/2005-11-06/contenido_MI-5856.htm
According to Ana Carrington, one of the disappeared was a law student and M-19 guerrilla, Irma Franco. Carrington says Franco was seen by several hostages. She also states that the guerrilla left with several hostages and was never seen again. The Special Commission of Inquiry confirmed Franco's disappearance, and the judges requested that the investigation of her case be thoroughly pursued.
One week after the siege, M-19 released a communique to the press claiming that six leaders, including Franco, and "seven other fighters" had all been "disappeared and murdered" by the army. From the tapes of the military and police inter-communications it is known that army intelligence arrested at least seventeen people in the course of the two-day siege. None of the M-19 leaders, with the exception of Andrés Almarales
Andrés Almarales
Andrés Almarales Manga, was one of the commanders of the 19th of April Movement terrorist group. He was a member of the Colombian Communist Party. He worked with the socialist groups under Antonio Garcia and with the United People's Front with the priest, Camilo Torres...
, were ever identified in the city morgue.
Some of their relatives and some human rights organizations have claimed that they could have been taken alive by the military and then killed outside or inside the building, possibly after being interrogated and tortured.
Recent developments
El Espectador
El Espectador is a newspaper with national circulation within Colombia, founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez on 22 March 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá...
, and the Cromos magazine published several articles, interviews and opinion pieces on the matter, including stories about the survivors, as well as the plight of the victims' relatives and those of the missing. http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/proy_2005/proy_palacio/home/index.htmlhttp://www.cromos.com.co/historico/2005-11-25/contenido_MI-3152.htm
2005–2006 Truth Commission
The Supreme Court created a Truth CommissionTruth commission
A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government , in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past...
in order to investigate the siege. The Commission officially began its work on November 3, 2005 and according to one of its members, Judge Jorge Aníbal Gómez.
2006–2007 Judicial processes
On 22 August 2006, Attorney General Mario Iguarán announced that former Colonel Edilberto Sánchez, former B-2 intelligence chief of the Army's Thirteenth Brigade, would be summoned for questioning and investigated for the crimes of kidnapping and forced disappearance. Public prosecutors are to reopen the case after examining video tape recordings and identifying cafeteria manager Carlos Augusto Rodríguez being taken outside of the Palace of Justice alive by a soldier, together with other former M-19 hostages.Former Col. Sánchez was then detained. In May 2007, former Col. Sánchez has been questioned by prosecutors about his possible role in the disappearance of Irma Franco and at least two cafeteria workers, who would have left the Palace alive. Sánchez rejected the charges and proclaimed his innocence. He accepted that he could have received the order to cover the exit of some hostages from the Palace of Justice.
2008 Virginia Vallejo's testimony
On 11 July 2008, Virginia VallejoVirginia Vallejo
Virginia Vallejo-Garcia is a Colombian writer, journalist, columnist, media personality, television anchorwoman, and socialite born on August 26th 1949 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, who lost her career in television after her five-year romantic relationship with Pablo Escobar , head of the Medellín...
, the television anchorwoman who was romantically involved with Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
from 1983 to 1987 and the author of "Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar" (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), was asked to testify in the reopened case of the Palace of Justice siege, in order to confirm the events described in "That Palace in Flames" and pages 230 to 266 of her memoir. In the Colombian Consulate in Miami, where she was granted political asylum on June 3, 2010, she described the drug lord's relationship with the Sandinista Junta
Junta of National Reconstruction
The Junta of National Reconstruction officially ruled Nicaragua from July 1979 to January 1985, though effective power was in the hands of the Sandinista National Liberation Front's National Directorate....
and the M-19
19th of April Movement
The 19th of April Movement or M-19, was a Colombian guerrilla movement. After its demobilization it became a political party, the M-19 Democratic Alliance , or AD/M-19.The M-19 traced its origins to the allegedly fraudulent presidential elections of 19 April 1970...
and a meeting of Escobar and the rebel group commander, Ivan Marino Ospina in which she had been present, two weeks before the latter was killed by the Army on 29 August 1985. She said that, in mid 1986, Escobar had told her that he had paid the rebels one million dollars in cash and another in arms and explosives to steal his files from the Palace of Justice before the Supreme Court could begin their study to decide on the extradition of the leading members of the cocaine cartels to the United States of America. During the testimonial, that lasted five hours, Vallejo also described sixteen photographs of bodies that had been anonymously sent to her in 1986. According to her, Escobar identified them as the employees of the Palace cafeteria and two rebel women who had been detained by the Army after the siege, tortured and disappeared, on orders of Colonel Edilberto Sánchez, the director of B-2, Military Intelligence. In October 2008, excerpts of Virginia Vallejo's testimonial, given under gag order, appeared in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. On radio stations, Vallejo accused the Colombian General's Attorney's Office of filtering it to the media and of adulterating the contents to favor the military and former presidential candidate Alberto Santofimio
Alberto Santofimio
Alberto Santofimio Botero is a Colombian politician member of the Colombian Liberal Party. He has been Minister of Justice, a two-time presidential candidate and a Senator. He was considered to be a sure bet for president in 1982, but he decided to let his boss, Alfonso Lopez Michelsen who had...
.
2010 Sentence against Colonel Plazas
In 2010, retired Colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega was punished with 30 years of jail time for his role in forced disappearanceForced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
s after the siege.
The President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
, reacted by declaring that he was "sad and hurt" by the decision. He announced his intention of seeking changes to the way military are judged in Colombia and asked for jail time for those he called the "instigators" of the massacre. Uribe also had a meeting with the military command to find ways to protect them from "judiciary decisions that interfere with their work".
Nevertheless, Colombia's General Attorney has declared that crimes against humanity took place during the siege, which has allowed for the continued processing of another colonel and one general involved in the incident. María Stella Jara, the judge that handed the sentence to Colonel Plazas left the country after receiving multiple death treats to her and her son. She and her family had to live under heavy surveillance for the duration of the trial
Government/NGO reports
- State Department Cable says Colombian Army Responsible for Palace of Justice Deaths, Disappearances, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 289, National Security ArchiveNational Security ArchiveThe National Security Archive is a 501 non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located in the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1985 by Scott Armstrong, it archives and publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of US...
, October 28, 2009 - Landmark Conviction in Colombia's Palace of Justice Case, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 319, National Security ArchiveNational Security ArchiveThe National Security Archive is a 501 non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located in the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1985 by Scott Armstrong, it archives and publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of US...
, June 11, 2010
News
- Impunity Still Surrounds Palace of Justice Tragedy, Inter Press Service