Inter-American Court Condemns Colombia for Disappearances

Inter-American Court Condemns Colombia for Disappearances
Fecha de publicación: 
12 December 2014
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Families of people forcibly disappeared by the Colombian military during the 1985 Palace of Justice siege came together on December 11 to welcome a decision by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights condemning the Colombian government over the event, however they emphasized that the decision is just the first step toward justice and demanded answers about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

The court found that forced disappearances and torture had taken place, and that at least one extrajudicial killing had been carried out by the military, and awarded US$7.4 million to the families.

According to victims’ lawyer, Maria Ortega Osorio, the ruling should serve as a wake-up call to Colombia and other states to assist in the search for justice in such cases.

“It’s better to avoid this, to respond to the violations directly and not have to submit yourself to an international decision which signals you internationally as a violator of human rights,” said Ortega.

The disappearances occurred during the military’s violent retaking of the Palace of Justice, after it was overrun by 35 members of now defunct urban guerrilla group, the 19th of April Movement (M19) on November 6, 1985. The aggressive military response left dozens dead, including nearly half of the country’s Supreme Court Justices.

Colombian military take-over of presidential palace November of 1985.

During the operation, at least one Supreme Court Justice was disappeared, alongside members of the M19. However, many of the disappeared were workers in the palace’s coffee shop who had nothing to do with the plot.

Video footage and testimonials have shown people leaving the palace, only for them to subsequently be found dead or disappear, such as in the case of Magistrate Carlos Uran, whose body was found inside the palace 24 hours after family members and journalists witnessed him leaving the building.

Today, more than 29 years after the event, the government remains silent, and families of those who vanished are in the dark about what the military did to their loved ones and where their remains are in the case they were killed.

Luis Carlos Ospina is one of those family members, whose partner of 13 years, Gloria Estela Lizerazo was a kitchen assistant at the coffee shop. When she disappeared at the hands of the military, he was left with three small children to bring up single handedly. He welcomes the court decision but still wants answers.

“What we need is that they tell us where they are, what they did with them, that is what we are waiting for,” said Ospina. “Money doesn’t cover it, because money isn’t everything. I don’t think my partner has a price,” he added.

Speaking to teleSUR in November, during the commemoration of the anniversary of the siege, another of the victims’ legal representatives,  Eduardo Carreño Vilches, said evidence that has emerged in recent years shows a corrupt criminal cell within the military knew of the plot beforehand, allowed it to happen, and planned the brutal response.

“It appears that within the criminal apparatus that was created for this event, there is a pact of silence,” Carreño said at the time.

Though information on what happened to the disappeared has not been forthcoming, legal action against the military commanders responsible has belatedly occurred, with retired General Jesús Armando Arias sentenced to 35 years in prison in late October, four years after retired Colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega received a 30 year sentence for his role.

Yet moves are now being made for those sentences to be reviewed, opening up the prospect of the condemned officials walking free once more.

Meanwhile, the search for truth of the victims’ families remains ongoing, with the specter of it dragging on so long that those senior military officials who know the truth could take it to their graves.

“They say they were defending democracy,” says Ospina. “But what kind of democracy is this?”

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