A February 24, 2007, letter from Jaime Bermúdez, then the Colombian ambassador to Argentina, to the newspaper Clarín, includes quotations from Uribe responding to the allegations made against him in the 2002 campaign. A copy of the letter can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20110706084412/http://www.embajadacolombia.int.ar/site/indexnb.asp?IdSeccion =389&IdSector=1.
Ministry of Defense estimates of the number of paramilitary troops were cited in a 2004 US cable available at https://www.scribd.com/document
/84833997/Cable-914-US-Assessment-of-Size-and-Organization-of-Armed-Paramilitary-and-Insurgent-Groups-in-Colombia.
Attorney General John Ashcroft’s statement is available at the US Department of State Archive, http://2001-2009.state.gov/p/inl/rls/rm/13663.htm.
Carlos Castaño’s emails were obtained by Ricardo Calderón through his reporting.
The US cable cited in Chapter 10 is US Cable 06BOGOTÁ010596, November 17, 2006, available at http://cables.mrkva.eu/cable.php?id=86233& show=original.
The members of Congress from Sucre mentioned in Chapter 10, Jairo Merlano, Eric Morris, Muriel Benito, and Álvaro García, were all convicted at various times of offenses related to their involvement with paramilitary groups. García was also convicted of involvement in the homicide of Georgina Narváez and the massacre of Macayepo. While the politicians challenged the credibility of the testimony by Jairo Castillo (aka “Pitirri”), in its rulings the Supreme Court cited corroborating evidence and other factors that supported Castillo’s version of events. With regard to Morris, the court did not find that he had been directly involved in diverting public resources as governor, as suggested by Castillo, but it did find that he had conspired with paramilitaries. Prosecutors also pressed charges against landowner Joaquín García in connection with the Macayepo massacre; in rulings in some of the other cases, the court talks about him as a well-known promoter of the paramilitaries. However, according to news reports, Joaquín García disappeared in September 2010 after unknown men reportedly took him from his apartment, and the investigation against him was closed on the grounds that García was presumed dead. The former governor of Sucre Salvador Arana was convicted of the murder of the mayor of El Roble, Eudaldo “Tito” Díaz.
In May 2008, the Supreme Court convicted Senator Mauricio Pimiento, who is mentioned in Chapter 11, of conspiring with paramilitaries and of voter “constraint.” In March 2010, the court convicted Senator Álvaro Araújo, also mentioned in Chapter 11, of the same offenses.
Details of the Chivolo and Pivijay pacts cited in Chapter 10 are available in Supreme Court ruling 35227 against José María Imbeth and Feris Chadid. Additional information is available in ruling 26585, involving Rubén Dario Quintero.
Colombian journalist Juanita León analyzed Mancuso’s statements about Juan Manuel Santos, as well as the responses by Santos and various witnesses, in an article in La Silla Vacía on April 13, 2010, available at http://lasillavacia.com/historia/9420.
The description in Chapter 12 of the meeting that Ricardo Calderón had with then minister of defense Juan Manuel Santos is based on Calderón’s account. Santos, who later became president, did not respond to a request for his account of the meeting sent via a July 7, 2017, letter to his adviser Enrique Riveira.
The US cable cited in Chapter 13, which indicates that Colombian officials expressed concern that the Supreme Court would permanently block extraditions, is US Cable 05BOGOTÁ5310_a, June 2, 2005, available at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05BOGOTÁ5310_a.html.
Don Berna’s claim that his brother killed Pablo Escobar is recorded in Don Berna’s book Así Matamos al Patrón: La Cacería de Pablo Escobar, by Diego Murillo Bejarano (Bogotá: Ícono, 2014).
The US chargé d’affaires’s statements to the Colombian government about the handling of Don Berna’s case in 2005 are recorded in US Cable 05BOGOTÁ5753_a, June 16, 2005, available at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05BOGOTÁ5753_a.html.
Official information about the demobilization of each paramilitary block, including the date, the number of members demobilizing, and the number of weapons turned over, is listed in the Final Report on the Peace Process with the Self-Defense Forces, produced by the Colombian government (undated). See “Proceso de Paz con las Autodefensas,” available at www.cooperacioninternacional.com/descargas/informefinaldesmovilizaciones.pdf.
“Mónica” is a pseudonym for Calderón’s wife.
The Noticias Uno video of Yidis Medina’s statements about her vote in favor of Uribe’s reelection is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NbO8O-ZN34. The events around it are also summarized in Daniel Coronell’s book Recordar es Morir (Bogotá: Aguilar, 2016).
The quotation from Uribe in Chapter 14 about why he extradited the paramilitary commanders comes from the English version of his autobiography, No Lost Causes, 287.
Mancuso’s allegations about the involvement of “General Ospina” in the El Aro massacre have not been confirmed. According to news reports, prosecutors instructed that an investigation be conducted into the possible involvement of General Carlos Alberto Ospina, who at the time was the commander of the army’s Fourth Brigade, in the El Aro massacre. But as of this writing, it was unclear whether such an investigation was moving forward. Years earlier, before Mancuso’s statements, the inspector general’s office had reportedly closed a disciplinary investigation of Ospina in connection with the massacre.
Former president Uribe never responded to the questionnaire sent to him in connection with this book in March 2017, which asked him for his version of events concerning his meeting with then attorney general Mario Iguarán, mentioned in Chapter 14. The same questionnaire included numerous detailed questions about, among other issues, the Tasmania scandal, Yidis Medina’s allegations against him, the parapolitics investigations, the paramilitary demobilization process, Rafael García’s allegations of electoral fraud in Magdalena during the 2002 presidential elections, his public falling-out with the Supreme Court, Calderón’s reports about ongoing paramilitary crimes after the demobilization, and his decision to extradite most of the paramilitary leadership.
PART IV: TRUTH
The Supreme Court eventually issued an order (an auto inhibitorio) closing the investigation into Senator Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez, mentioned in Chapter 15, for lack of sufficient evidence.
In a TV interview with Noticias Uno, Henry Anaya, the man who appeared in the Job video, apparently trying to ask Don Berna’s lawyer for a bribe, denied that that had ever happened. He said he had no connection to the court and that he had only met with attorney Diego Álvarez because he admired him.
The reference in Chapter 17 to DAS chief Felipe Muñoz’s inaccurate claims that there were no recordings of illegal surveillance, and that Attorney General Mario Iguarán had said he had found no evidence against anyone in the presidency, came from US Cable 09BOGOTÁ1618_a, May 22, 2009, available at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BOGOTÁ1618_a.html.
Additional information came from US Cable 09BOGOTÁ2921_a, September 10, 2009, available at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BOGOTÁ 2921_a.html, and US Cable 09BOGOTÁ2963_a, September 16, 2009, in which the ambassador and Vice President Santos discuss the response to the DAS scandals, available at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BOGOTÁ 2963_a.html.
The quotation in Chapter 17 from presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria in response to Jorge Lagos’s allegations against him appeared in a newspaper interview, “Oposición pudo haberse infiltrado en el DAS para provocar escándalo,” El Tiempo, May 14, 2009, www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-5188254.
The quotation from US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly comes from “Determination and Certification of Colombian Government and Armed Forces with Respect to Human Rights Related Conditions,” a press statement dated September 11, 2009, available at US Department of State, https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/sept/129135.htm.
Accounts of Operation Checkmate, which is described in Chapter 18, ar
e available in John Otis, The Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure (New York: William Morrow, 2010), as well as Íngrid Betancourt’s No Hay Silencio Que No Termine (Bogotá: Aguilar, 2010), among many other accounts. The quotations from Uribe about his decision to keep his regular schedule during Operation Checkmate, and about his comments to the rescued hostages, come from the English version of his autobiography, No Lost Causes (New York: Celebra, 2012), 300–301.
The quotations from Alba Luz Flórez in Chapter 18 are drawn from her statement to the attorney general’s office on May 24, 2010.
The court ruling referenced in Chapter 19, which mentions a list of Envigado Office collaborators turned over by Juan Carlos Sierra, aka El Tuso, is a September 24, 2015 decision by the Tribunal Superior de Medellín, Sala de Conocimiento de Justicia y Paz, in the case of Edilberto de Jesús Cañas Chavarriaga et al., for conspiracy and other offenses, para. 161.
The 2016 letter mentioned in Chapter 19, in which former president Uribe asked El Espectador to correct its reporting about the allegations against him related to El Aro, is available at “Álvaro Uribe Vélez se refiere a la massacre de El Aro, El Espectador, June 3, 2016, www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/alvaro-uribe-velez-se-refiere-masacre-de-el-aro-articulo-635870.
As Pedro Juan Moreno is dead, he cannot respond to the allegations against him by paramilitary leaders Don Berna, Mancuso, and Hasbún. Former president Uribe has questioned the credibility of Don Berna and other paramilitary leaders and defended the record of his former chief of staff.
The questionnaire sent to former president Uribe in March 2017 in connection with this book, to which he never responded, included detailed questions about the allegations that have been made against him and his associates, the scandal over “Job” and his entry into the Casa de Nariño, and the DAS scandal.
AFTERWORD: PEACE?
Numbers of people killed in the Colombian conflict are drawn from the Center for Historical Memory of Colombia, which estimated that 218,094 people were killed between 1958 and 2012. See “Estadísticas del conflicto armado en Colombia,” Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica, www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/informeGeneral/estadisticas.html.
The Supreme Court ruling convicting María del Pilar Hurtado and Bernardo Moreno came in Case No. 36784, dated April 28, 2015. The press release from the attorney general’s office announcing charges against César Mauricio Velásquez, Edmundo del Castillo, Sergio González, and Diego Álvarez is available at “Fiscalía acusó al ex secretario jurídico y al exjefe de prensa de la Casa de Nariño por planear supuestamente desprestigio a la Corte Suprema de Justicia,” Fiscalía General de La Nación, June 22, 2017, www.fiscalia.gov.co/colombia/noticias/fiscalia-acuso-al-ex-secretario-juridico-y-al-exjefe-de-prensa-de-la-casa-de-narino-por-planear-desprestigio-a-la-corte-suprema-de-justicia.
The February 2015 ruling from the Justice and Peace Tribunal of Medellín in the case of Ramiro Vanoy, in which the court ordered Uribe’s investigation in connection with the El Aro massacre, is available at República de Colombia, Rama Judicial del Poder Público, Tribunal Superior de Medellín, Sala de Justicia y Paz, February 2, 2015, https://www.ramajudicial.gov.co/documents/6342975/6634902/1.+2015.02.02+Sent_Bl_Mineros-ramiro-vanoy-murillo.pdf. The quotations from the second ruling are drawn from the same court’s September 24, 2015, decision in the case of Edilberto de Jesús Cañas Chavarriaga et al., for conspiracy and other offenses. According to a legal expert interviewed for this book, the status of that ruling is currently uncertain, as, on appeal, the Supreme Court held that the ruling was unnecessary, as the Medellín court had already issued instructions for Uribe to be investigated on the same grounds in a ruling in 2013. But the Supreme Court had previously overturned the 2013 ruling on other grounds, leading to confusion about whether the instructions to investigate Uribe still stood. The Supreme Court’s decision on the appeal from the 2015 ruling should, in theory, mean that the 2013 order still stands.
Former president Uribe never responded to a March 15, 2017, set of written questions for this book, which referenced Don Berna’s claim that Uribe had ordered that Pedro Juan Moreno’s helicopter be sabotaged, leading to his death. The same questionnaire included questions about the allegations of Mancuso and others against Uribe and against Pedro Juan Moreno, as well as about the ruling by the Justice and Peace Tribunal in Medellín, in which the court requested that Uribe be investigated for promoting paramilitary groups.
The information included in this book about the status of potential investigations against Uribe and of Uribe’s lawsuits against others is based on public reports and conversations with knowledgeable people and is current to the best of the author’s knowledge as of the writing of this book.
Part Opener Image Captions and Credits
Prologue, here A young woman practices juggling at the headquarters of the Youth Network of Medellín (Red Juvenil de Medellín), a pacifist organization that encourages young people to stay away from all the armed groups in the conflict. Because of their pacifist ideology, the leaders of Red Juvenil have been subject to death threats. Medellín, August 22, 2009. © Stephen Ferry.
Part I, here Paula Lance sits on the remains of the house that she and her husband were building on land that was taken from them by paramilitaries and then returned to her by court order. The day before this photograph was taken, an armed group, descended from the original paramilitaries who displaced her, knocked the frame of the house down in order to intimidate her. Curvaradó, Chocó, June 7, 2011. © Stephen Ferry.
Part II, here Hands of the bodyguard of Medellín’s human rights ombudsman, Jorge Ceballos. Ceballos was the target of numerous death threats by right-wing armed groups due to his work as a human rights defender. Medellín, May 9, 2009. © Stephen Ferry.
Part III, here Salvatore Mancuso addresses paramilitary troops on a video screen during the demobilization ceremony of the Cacique Nutibara Block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, Medellín, November 25, 2003. © Stephen Ferry.
Part IV, here Juan David Díaz looks out onto the street below. He keeps the curtains drawn in his house because he and his family have been subject to threats and attacks ever since he denounced the murder of his father at the hands of paramilitaries, June 6, 2009. © Stephen Ferry.
Afterword, here A fifteen-year-old FARC combatant guards a jungle camp. Caquetá, February 6, 2000. © Stephen Ferry.
Glossary
ACCU: Autodefensas Campesinas de Córdoba y Urabá (Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá), a paramilitary group led by the Castaño brothers in the 1990s.
Attorney general’s office (Fiscalía): Colombian government agency charged with investigating and prosecuting crime.
AUC: Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia), an umbrella group for all paramilitary groups in Colombia, formed in the late 1990s.
Constitutional Court: One of Colombia’s four high courts, charged with hearing constitutional challenges to laws and constitutional appeals in cases.
CTI: Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación (Technical Investigation Team), a branch of the attorney general’s office that conducts criminal investigations, working with prosecutors.
DAS: Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (Administrative Department of Security), Colombia’s national intelligence service until October 2011. The agency also had other functions, including handling migration matters.
ELN: Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army), a left-wing guerrilla group.
EPL: Ejército Popular de Liberación (Popular Liberation Army), a left-wing guerrilla group that demobilized in 1991.
FARC: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), Colombia’s oldest and largest left-wing guerrilla group, founded in 1964. It officially disarmed in 2017.
G-3: A group operating within the DAS in 2004 and 2005 that was allegedly involved in persecution of
human rights groups and labor activists, among others.
GONI: Grupo de Observación Nacional e Internacional (National and International Observation Group), a group established within the DAS in 2005 after the dissolution of the G-3 and allegedly involved in conducting illegal surveillance.
Inspector general’s office (Procuraduría): Colombian government agency charged with investigating misconduct and violations of administrative rules by government officials and representing civil society.
M-19: Movimiento 19 de Abril (19th of April Movement), a left-wing guerrilla group, more urban and middle class in composition than others, that demobilized in the late 1980s.
MAS: Muerte a Secuestradores (Death to Kidnappers), a death squad formed by members of the Medellín cartel in the early 1980s. Some members of MAS later became paramilitary leaders.
Los Pepes: Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar (Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), a group of former associates, rivals, and enemies of cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar, who joined forces in the early 1990s to kill the drug lord and his associates.
Supreme Court: One of Colombia’s four high courts, charged with hearing appeals from lower courts as well as investigating and trying cases against members of the Colombian Congress; it is also charged with trying (but not investigating) cases against the president and various other senior officials. It has twenty-three members, who are divided among three chambers covering civil, criminal, and labor matters, respectively.
There Are No Dead Here Page 34
