Homage to Alirio Martínez, who was murdered on 5 August 2004
Article published in the special Newsletter '15 years of PBI', October 2009
A former volunteer from the US
One of the first proven cases of «false positives» occurs in the Department of Arauca.
In 2004 we accompanied a human rights training course in Saravena, Arauca. We planned another journey to the area at the beginning of August, but due to a possible armed stoppage we were debating whether or not we would be able to undertake the accompaniment.
The situation became even more complicated on 5 August when several organisations told us about the formation of a verification mission following the assassination of three social and union leaders in the village of Caño Seco, close to Saravena. They told us that in the early morning a patrol of the Mechanised Group No. 18, Revéiz Pizarro, of the Army arrived in Caño Seco and executed Leonel Goyeneche, treasurer of the local section of the United Federation of Workers (CUT), Alirio Martínez, former President of the Departmental Association of Small Farmers (ADUC) and Jorge Prieto, President of the National Association of Hospital Workers of Colombia (ANTHOC)1. At that time, two of the three victims benefited from protective measures ordered by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. However, according to the version of the National Army there had been a combat and they «took out» the three insurgents. Likewise, Vice President Santos indicated in several media sources that those recently assassinated allegedly had links with guerrilla groups 2.
We arrived in Arauca a few days later owing to the importance of the verification mission in shedding light on events. We were accompanying several organisations, including the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee, the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective, the Association for Alternative Social Promotion (MINGA), and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission. Today I only have a hazy memory of the journey, but I will never forget the heavy atmosphere and the presence of death in the humid air. When we reached the village we found an isolated community that was terrified of future reprisals by the Army. In spite of the difficulties, the mission managed to interview a number of witnesses and collect important evidence, for example, the lack of signs of combat in the place where the events occurred 3.
«False positives»
«False positives» is a practice in which members of the state security forces kill civilians, generally small farmers or the unemployed, and present them as members of the guerrilla killed in combat. According to international humanitarian law an extrajudicial killing is a human rights violation in which a public servant comits a deliberate homicide and uses State authority to justify the crime.
«The term “false positives” provides a sort of technical aura to describe a practice which is better characterized as cold-blooded, premeditated murder of innocent civilians for profit» 6.
«Troop strength increased from 160 thousand to 254 thousand soldiers from 2008 to 2009, respectively. This makes Colombia the largest military power in Latin America. We are talking about having an army larger that Brazil’s which has a troop force of no more than 270 thousand»7.
1 «Report of the Verification Commission on the execution of the Araucan leaders Héctor Alirio Martínez, Leonel Goyeneche and Jorge Prieto», 9 September 2004
2 «Union leaders or guerrillas?», Semana magazine, 8 August 2004
3 «Report of the Verification Committee on the Execution of the Araucan Leaders, Héctor Alirio Martínez, Leonel Goyeneche and Jorge Prieto», 9 September 2004
4 Judgement No. 810013107001-200500060-01. Second Criminal Court of the Specialised Circuit (OIT), Bogotá DC, 23 August 2007. On 26 June 2009 Office 20 of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an order for preventative detention without right to release for these acts (filed 2009-OIT).
5 Interview with Alirio Uribe Muñoz, lawyer with the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective, who represents the claimants in the criminal proceedings, 16 July 2009
6 Statement by Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial killings, Mission to Colombia, 8-18 June 2009
7 «Colombia parece transitar hacia una estructura militar», Nuevo Arco Iris Corporation, 8 May 2