Commanders of Colombia’s ‘battalion of death’ arrested for killing 72

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia: 5 Colonels Charged for 'False Positives' Killings

Colombia: 5 Colonels Charged for 'False Positives' Killings
Published 10 June 2015

Only five other military officials have been condemned so far, in a scandal that killed almost 5,000 Colombian citizens. Court hearings for five colonels were held on Monday in the in the cities of Bogota, the capital, and Medellin, over the murders of 72 civilians committed between 2006 and 2007.

The colonels, arrested between March and April of this year, when the hearings against them started. Commander Edgar Avila, Second Commander Jose Zanguna Duarte, as well as Heads of Operations Diego Padilla, Raul Huertas and Carlos Cadena all belonged to the “Pedro Nel Ospina” Battalion based in Medellin.

The accused colonels allegedly hunted, kidnapped, and murdered vulnerable people, mostly from campesino families, in an attempt to plant weapons near their corpses so the soldiers could claim they were guerrilla fighters. Corrupt operations like this, known as “false positives” in the army's record of guerrilla killings, were unveiled by a long-running meticulous investigation by the leading attorney of the Human Rights Unit in Medellin, Luis Fernando Zapata.

Human rights organizations estimate the Colombian army murdered about 4,300 civilians under the government of far-right former President Alvaro Uribe, which had implemented a policy setting “kill targets” in exchange of merits and promotions.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-5-Colonels-Charged-for-False-Positives-Killings--20150610-0122.html