The nightmare ended. The 178 victims of the arbitrary detentions ordered by the Prosecutor’s Office with false witnesses in several municipalities of Huila will have economic compensation for moral and material damages.
RICARDO AREIZA
Finally, after fighting a tough legal battle, the 178 victims of the massive arrests ordered 21 years ago in several municipalities of Huila, will have their long-awaited compensation.
The Attorney General’s Office, responsible for arbitrary detentions, will, from its budget, pay the costs of its scandalous mistakes.
The same prosecuting body recognized the weaknesses of the investigations supported only by false witnesses and ordered the preclusion four years after the mass arrests. The Prosecutor’s Office was sentenced to cancel the moral and material damages caused to the detainees and their families. The compensation amount amounts to 8,414 million pesos, one of the highest imposed for this “false positive.”
The reparation, supported by lawyer Hugo Tovar Marroquín (now deceased) benefited 178 people, including victims and relatives. Some of them died waiting for the compensation that will finally be made effective.
Conciliation
The initial assessment amounted to 10,638 million pesos for material, moral and interest damages caused to the victims of the arbitrary arrests that occurred five months after the breakdown of the peace talks in San Vicente del Caguán (Caquetá).
The amount was reduced by 30% due to a reconciliation. The Attorney General’s Office, responsible for the reparation, proposed as a conciliatory formula the payment of 70% of the total value of the sentence, excluding 25% for social benefits from the material damages in the concept of lost profits.
The conciliation agreement was approved on November 24, 2015 and clarified on September 9, 2016. However, the Prosecutor’s Office did not comply with the commitment and delayed the payment.
Since the obligation had not been canceled as it was settled, the victims initiated an executive process resolved on May 28, 2018.
Given the non-compliance, the Administrative Court of Huila issued the payment order in favor of the victims. After five years of this last battle, Judge José Miller Lugo put an end to it.
Repair
The corporation’s accountant updated the settlement of the obligation for each of the victims, which showed a total of 2,971 million pesos, for capital, moral and material damages. In addition, the default interest caused from December 8, 2015 to May 21, 2021, worth 4,476 million pesos.
Today, the final amount of compensation to the victims of the mass capture amounts to 8,414 million pesos, of which 2,971 million correspond to capital and default interest for the sum of 5,443 million pesos.
Objections
Within the execution period, the Attorney General’s Office objected to the official settlement, alleging a difference in the calculation of the default interest rate.
Likewise, he argued that uncaused default interest was settled, that is, that it was carried out as of May 23, 2023, in his opinion, inadmissible, because the executed obligation was recognized as public debt, within the National Development Plan. .
The Prosecutor’s Office argued that it made full payment of the obligation to the victims of the mass capture. In his opinion, that obligation was already settled.
“The mere recognition of the obligation pursued in this matter and contained in the judicial ruling as a public debt, in no way suspends the collection of interest, since this only occurs when the effective payment of the obligation is proven,” Lugo Barrero specified.
“Therefore,” he clarified, “it is not true as indicated by the FGN in the objection document that “it made full payment of the executed obligation, since it is evident that, as of the date of the deposit on September 15, 2022, it is still A balance of capital and interest remains pending without any solution.”
The magistrate rejected the objections raised by the Attorney General’s Office and Confival Capital SAS and confirmed the liquidation carried out by the corporation’s accountant-liquidator.
On August 31, 2022, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit ordered the payment, according to Resolution No. 2289 signed by José Antonio Ocampo.
Once this decision is firm, the victims will now begin to receive compensation.
The montage
‘Operation Margareth’ was ordered by specialized prosecutor Cecilia Giraldo Saavedra, who died a year later during the attack on Villa Magdalena.
The operational envelope was directed by Colonel Joaquín Correa López, during the retaking of the Detente Zone.
During the operation, 37 people were arrested, most of them farmers and merchants, including councilor José Arce Zúñiga and teacher Elvia María Trujillo, who died waiting for reparation. Police officers Luis Eduardo Burbano and Edgar Culma Soto were also captured, accused without evidence.
The gigantic operation was carried out on July 13, 2002 simultaneously in the municipalities of Nátaga, Tesalia, La Plata, Íquira and Neiva. Only the statements made to the police by Farith Motta González and César Augusto Navarro, related as alleged deserters, were enough.
The national director of the Police, General Luis Ernesto Gilibert, presented them in Neiva with a great national media display as alleged militiamen of the ‘Joselo Losada’ front of the FARC.
The controversial prosecutor Second Delegate Cecilia Giraldo charged them only with the statements of the two false witnesses. The judicial official opened a criminal investigation on July 10, 2002 against Alfonso Ramos Cabrera, Elvia María Trujillo de Perdomo, Isaías Andrade Ramírez, Fortunato Noscué Palma, Carlos Eduardo Ramírez Trujillo, Adalberto Pérez Lozano (deceased), Eliana González Castillo and Alexander Velásquez Peña, among others.
The arrest warrants became effective on July 13, 2002 in raids and searches carried out simultaneously in rural areas. Also detained were Germán Basto Briñez, Jiovanny Medina Suns, Reinel Andrade Leguízamo, Angelino Leiva Leiva, José Oliderney Daza Cerquera and Edinson Yuco Yuco, arrested by administrative means, and 23 more people, without a trial.
The Prosecutor’s Office accused them of the alleged crimes of conspiracy, rebellion and illegal possession of weapons.
The defendants were deprived of their liberty for six months. All with a measure of security in a prison until the day they were released.
false witnesses
The massive arrests were ordered only with the versions provided by Farith Motta González and César Augusto Navarro, referred to as alleged deserters from the former FARC.
Motta was an informant for the DAS (secret organization now liquidated). The Prosecutor’s Office presented him as a witness. Later the same declarant confessed that he was a paramilitary. From La Picota prison he denounced the participation of officers in the ‘false positives’. Among them he mentioned several attacks recorded in Bogotá, between June 26 and August 7, 2006, the day President Álvaro Uribe’s second term began. According to his testimony, they were setups paid for by the uniformed men to obtain benefits.
Preclusion
After demonstrating the flaws of the accusations, the Third Prosecutor’s Office delegated to the Circuit Criminal Judges, precluded the investigation on July 5, 2006.
“The versions of the witness Farith Motta were rejected for registering mental problems, as a result of an accident. Under these conditions, his version offered no guarantee and, on the contrary, the testimonies given in favor of the accused pointed them out as good people and workers, and the investigation was precluded by virtue of the presumption of innocence,” confirmed lawyer Hugo Tovar Marroquín. who died on October 1, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic.
The same Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the versions of the witnesses Motta and Navarro, pillars of evidence of the investigation, “were not verified regarding the true existence of the facts.” Furthermore, he specified that the first of them, Farith Motta, a cheating dentist, is identified by his relatives “as an irresponsible, unstable person, with mental problems resulting from a traffic accident he suffered” and “is known by his countrymen as a cunning criminal to deceive the farmers and not carry out their dental work.”
