Urgent Action: Denounce Massacre in Curumaní The Association for Alternative Social Promotion, "Minga" Bogotá, July 27, 1999 This Month's News | CSN Home

The Association for Alternative Social Promotion, "Minga", denounces before the national and international public the following events:

1. On July 26 of this year, at approximately 7:00 a.m., at the site known as EL CAÑO SAN IGNACIO, about 600 meters from the municipal borders of CURUMANÍ, Cesar, a group of uniformed and armed paramilitaries intercepted a public intermunicipal transportation van that was covering the route that leads from CURUMANÍ to the hamlets of EL TIGRE and PITALITO, and forced the vehicle's occupants to identify themselves. Afterwards, they selected the following peasants from the group: CENEN CARRASCAL, EDUARDO MADARRIAGA, FANER GUTIERREZ, HUMBERTO GIL y JOSE GREGORIO ALVAREZ, who were apprehended, immobilized, and murdered by means of numerous rifle blasts.
2. The aggressors then stole the vehicle and abandoned it later at the LA CONQUISTA hamlet, within the municipality of CURUMANÍ, on the Troncal del Caribe highway. In order to go from EL CAÑO SAN IGNACIO to LA CONQUISTA hamlet, the paramilitaries had to have gone through either CURUMANÍ's downtown, where there is a police station; or must have passed in front of an Army military base that controls one of the entrances to CURUMANÍ. Moreover, the shots that killed the five peasants were clearly heard by the residents of the town. Nevertheless, no neutralizing action or attempt to capture the murderers was put into action by the Army or the Police units that are quartered in the municipality. It should be underlined that in the days before the massacre, the police station at CURUMANÍ had been reinforced with several new arrivals and the Army had intensified its patrolling both within and around the urban area of the town, and had also established several observation posts at the various entrances to the municipality.
3. On the same day, at about 7:30 in the morning, another paramilitary group stopped on the road that leads from CURUMANÍ to the PAILITAS municipality, a private vehicle in which ALBERTO RIOS, CURUMANÍ's health and environmental inspector, was traveling accompanied by four other members of the RIOS AREVALO family. They were all kidnapped and taken towards the Troncal del Caribe highway. Near the hamlet EL TRÉBOL, the paramilitaries separated ALBERTO RIOS's relatives, left the women and the children detained and under custody, and took ALBERTO RIOS with them.
4. At 8:00 a.m., the armed group of men that was transporting ALBERTO RIOS in his own vehicle entered CURUMANÍ's "Ciudadela Animito" neighborhood and found the house belonging to the Municipal Treasurer, NUMIS ESTHER CAMACHO SANGREGORIO. Señora Camacho Sangergorio came out of the house upon being called by the paramilitaries who then proceeded to murder her in front of her family. The house where the murder took place is located less than 300 meters from CURUMANÍ's police station. CAMACHO SANGREGORIO was always an official who promoted and defended human rights.
5. Hours later, ALBERTO RIOS's corpse was discovered on the road that leads from CURUMANÍ to the PAILITAS municipality. He had been shot to death. The detained members of the RIOS AREVALO family were freed later on.
6. The paramilitaries warned the population that the murders they had committed were only the beginning of their incursions upon CURUMANÍ, and threatened via telephone to murder several community and social leaders as well as government officials, among them the Municipal General Secretary, GUSTAVO CAMACHO SANGREGORIO, for being suspected of offering aid and comfort to the guerrillas.

In view of such events, we demand:

1. That the National Government develops a protection plan for the inhabitants of the urban and rural areas of the CURUMANÍ municipality who are threatened by the actions of paramilitary groups. That the government guarantees the life, personal integrity, and freedom of the leaders and public officials who are being threatened.
2. That the National Unit for Human Rights of the Public Prosecutor of Colombia and the Directorship of Special investigations of the Attorney General's Office begin the investigation to clarify the denounced events and determine the appropriate penal and disciplinary responsibilities for those guilty.
3. That the High Command of both the Army and the National Police order the public forces units stationed in the South and the Center of Cesar to protect the civilian population from paramilitary attacks and fight against the paramilitary groups that have been terrorizing those areas of the country for ten years.
4. That the State adopts special protective measures for GUSTAVO CAMACHO SANGREGORIO, CURUMANÍ's Municipal General Secretary, and for the rest of the leaders and public officials of the region.

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