COLOMBIAN ARMY EXECUTES MENTALLY RETARDED CITIZEN
CSN-Madison, November 12, 2002
On Saturday September 29 at 11:30 p.m. in the village of Santiago Perez in the municipality of Ataco, Tolima state, some 30 Colombian Army troops from the Caicedo Battallion executed a 34 year old town resident named Ulises, known as Pirinolo who suffered from Down's syndrome. People loved Pirinolo because he was cooperative and in solidarity with everyone. When people moved Pirinolo helped to carry their household items. He had no home but had no problem finding a place to sleep because everybody offered him a space in their homes.
His main recreational activity was to hang around the tejo courts. Tejo is a pre-Columbian version of bowling that lights a firecracker when the target hits. Pirinolo laughed loudly every time the powder made noise.
When the army came into the town, they found Pirinolo at the local tejo courts and, while some soldiers checked identification and did searches of other town residents, others began beating and insulting Pirinolo. They tried to cut off his head with a machete, but strook his back in the darkness. Pirinolo was able to walk about a block before he fell. The valiant Colombian soldiers then came back to him and killed him with 4 shots in the chest, leaving his body lying where they shot him.
The whole town had witnessed the murder, but nobody dared go to pick up Pirinolo's body the next day as soldiers passed over it every so often. According to the inhabitants of the town, the murder of the popular Pirinolo was an act of vengeance on the part of one of the soldiers in response to the killing of his brother in the town two years before when he was accused of being a paramilitary group member. Pirinolo had nothing to do with that killing.
Please write to the following officials to express your outrage and demand an investigation of the killing of this innocent, defenseless man who was a humble transporter of cargo in his hometown.
Write to your respective Senators and Representatives asking if the military aid to Colombia provided by our government includes the killing of innocent Colombian citizens and also write to:
Mr. Colin Powell
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington D.C. 20520
www.state.gov
(202) 647 4000
Presidente de la Republica de Colombia
Dr. Alvaro Uribe Velez
Palacio de Narino
Carrera 8 No.7-26
Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: 00 57 1 286 74 34/286, 68 42/284 21 86
[Salutation: Excelentisimo Sr. Presidente/Dear President
]
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co;
rdh@presidencia.gov.co
Vicepresidente de la Republica de Colombia
Francisco Santos
Consejeria Presidential de Derechos Humanos
Calle 7, No 654, Piso 3
Santafe de Bogota, COLOMBIA
Fax: 00 57 1 337 1351
E-mail: mdn@cable.net.co;
infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co;
siden@mindefensa.gov.co
Ministro del Interior y Justicia
Fernando Londono Hoyos
Ministerio del Interior y Justicia
Palacio Echeverry, Carrera 8a, No.8-09, piso 2o.,
Santafe de Bogota, Colombia
Fax:00 57 1 286 8025
E-mail: mininterior@myrealbox.com;
minisint@col1.telecom.com.co
Ministra de la Defensa,
Martha Lucia Ramirez de Rincon
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional
Avenida El Dorado con carrera 52 CAN Santa Fe de
Bogot
Fax: 00 57 1 222 1874
E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co;
denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co;
webmaster@fiscalia.gov.co
Procurador General de la Nacion/Attorney General
Dr Edgardo Maya Villazon
E-mail: reygon@procuraduria.gov.co
Public Defender
Dr Luis Eduardo Cifuentes
secretaria_privada@hotmail.com
Programa Derechos Humanos Presidencia de la Republica
ppdh@presidencia.gov.co
High Commission for Human Rights in Colombia
Fax: (+57 1) 313 40 50
E-Mail: oacnudh@hchr.org.co
Luis Alberto Moreno, Embajador de Colombia:
E-mail: as@colombiaemb.org