By Sylvia Charry, CAMBIOColombia, August 17, 2015
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
CAMBIO is revealing, exclusively, the testimony by the brothers Jaime and Francisco Angulo Osorio before the JEP. It contains key items about paramilitarism in Antioquia. According to their statements, the administration of Álvaro Uribe Vélez permitted the massacres at Ituango and the murder of Jesús María Valle and was always privy to it. The victims are demanding the whole truth.
It’s only been 11 days since the former President could be formally described as a prisoner. Although it’s been said that his sentence of 12 years in prison for bribing witnesses and procedural fraud has split Colombia’s political history in two, that case might be the least of his legal problems in the near future.
His next legal challenge consists in defending himself in the case in which it is alleged that he participated in the massacres at La Granja, El Aro, and the murder of human rights defender Jesús María Valle, events that happened while he was serving as Governor of Antioquia. In this record, they are investigating the commission of atrocious crimes that happened because of the organization of paramilitary groups, including massacres, tortures, and disappearances. CAMBIO is revealing the testimony made to the JEP by two heavyweights of paramilitarism who could put the convicted former President Uribe against the ropes.
It’s about two cattle ranchers, Jaime and Francisco Angulo Osorio, sentenced in 2013 by the ordinary justice system to 30 years in prison for the murder of Valle, and for organizing, financing, and coordinating paramilitary groups in Ituango. Jaime and Francisco were arrested many years after their conviction, in 2017 and 2020 respectively, and now, with this outlook, they’re knocking on the door at the JEP, to offer their versions of this black chapter in Colombia’s history.
In February of this year, for the first time, the Angulo brothers admitted, before the JEP, the actions for which they had been convicted in the ordinary justice system. Up to now their testimony has remained under seal, and its contents could generate a new tsunami in the country’s politics. According to the Angulos, the government of Antioquia, headed by Álvaro Uribe Vélez, was very well aware of the incursion by the paramilitaries into Ituango and of the tragedies that resulted.
Those statements made before the JEP promise to move the legal chessboard in the case. Nevertheless, some victims contacted by this newspaper believe that the testimony provided by the Angulo brothers will not contribute to the truth and that the only thing they’re trying to do is get out of prison by admitting to actions that the legal system has already established.
The testimony by the Angulo brothers to the JEP
The convictions of the Angulo brothers identified them as financers and facilitators of paramilitarism in Ituango, with local influence that permitted them to move funds, weapons, and men without any opposition from the authorities. Also, as responsible for the murder of Jesús María Valle which, according to the investigation, was a direct punishment for his complaints about the conniving of the government and the Army with the paramilitaries.
Francisco Angulo Osorio testified to the JEP that, together with his brother, they financed and collaborated so that the paramilitaries could get to Ituango in September of 1996. Then, he said, 44 men arrived, and 42 of them remained at the ranch belonging to “Javier Duque, father of Máximo Duque, the former Director of Forensic Medicine (part of the Attorney General’s Office)”, and the other two men that were the commanders, were staying in an apartment belonging to the Angulos. Then, ten months later, on July 15, 1997, they formalized as a Convivir. However, he insisted that the collusion with the government of Antioquia and the military had been occurring from the beginning.
“In total there were 44 paramilitaries, of whom Junior (Isaías Montes Hernández) and Emiro, the commanders, were staying in the apartment I lent them, and I don’t know who else more. The rest were staying at El Rio Ranch that belongs to Sr. Javier Duque. That Sr. Javier is the father of Máximo Duque, who was the Director of Forensic Medicine in the Álvaro Uribe administration,” answered Francisco when the Justices asked him how many paramilitaries had come into the area and stayed there permanently.
One of the most important points is that he says he is sure that he gave information to the Army and to the administration of the Governor of Antioquia about where to do the bombing and, according to him, in order to do that, he used Jhon Dairo Echeverry who was the intermediary with Pedro Juan Moreno, who was the Secretary of Government in the Uribe administration in Antioquia. This collusion is what made the massacres possible.
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“Echeverry was the liaison for the information with Pedro Juan Moreno and the departmental government of Antioquia. Besides that, he took an active part when they were throwing the dead bodies into the Chingalé River. (. . .) My role and that of all of us working together was financing it and helping it with supplies, medicine, transportation, a place to stay and money for the paramilitaries, as well as giving information to the Army and to the Governor’s administration in Antioquia as to where they should do the bombings and all of that is what made possible the massacres at El Aro and La Granja,” he emphasized.
Francisco Angulo explained that the Convivir was created on July 15, 1997, in order to have a legal group of informants that would support the paramilitaries and the Army and would act as a legal intermediary between of the two. According to him, the same individuals that were financing and supporting the paramilitaries in Ituango (including Angulo, Jhon Echeverry, Román Tapias Rengifo, and Pedro José Mazo Vera) appear as members of the Convivir in a document that they signed. A day after they signed it, General Ospina, of the 4th Brigade, gave a favorable military opinion of the paramilitaries’ organization. Francisco Angulo testified that the intention was to have available something legal to give more support to the Army and the Governor’s administration in Antioquia.
“In the 4th Brigade, the one most interested (in the Convivirs) was General Ospina; his goal was to have a group to support with information to furnish to the Army about what was going on in Ituango. Echeverry was in charge of all the formalities. Pedro Juan Moreno was the one that was most insistent on that (in the Antioquia government administration), the Army and the Police operated jointly with the paras. For example, Emiro and Junior killed people and gave their bodies to the Army so they could win prizes,” he added.
Francisco Angulo said that he had given money to El Mocho when they had left La Granja and they used the money to free some paramilitaries that had been arrested because of those activities. Besides, he said, the paramilitaries that had committed the massacre were staying in the Hotel Bristol, which he owned.
“We gave some money to El Mocho when they were leaving La Granja and later on, we realized that it was to solve the problem that we had in San Andrés, where they were arrested, but if they had the money, they could leave,” he explained.
About the massacre at El Aro, Francisco said it had been possible thanks to their financing. “Román, Pedro Mazo and in general the whole business, truckers, cattle ranchers, coffee growers had to do with that massacre, as I financed it and we lent them logistics so the group get in there and remain in the area.”
He told how an airplane even flew over, showing the point where they had to drop the bombs. “Jhon Echeverry, he and I went along with the 4th Brigade; the Convivir had already been created,” he explained.
Regarding the homicide of Jesús María Valle, in the middle of the hearing on their admissions, the Justice who was questioning Francisco cited something it said in the file: “One day before the killing of the rights defender, Dr. Jesús María Valle, there were two meetings at the home of Jairo Castañeda in Medellin in which the witness Jhon Dairo Echeverry Tobón, his father Ernesto Echeverry, and the whole family of Jairo Casteñeda were all present as well as the brothers Jaime and Francisco Antonio Angulo Osorio, plus Román Tapias, who had a copy of the prosecutors’ record of the evidence against them, and they were all analyzing the situation. And in that meeting they decided to kill Professor Jesús María Valle.”
Angulo explained that it was thanks to a prosecutor from Caucasia who had obtained that information for them, and that’s why they killed him.
“There was a prosecutor that helped us by giving us information. That prosecutor said that they were investigating them because of the paramilitaries’ entering Ituango and the relationship of the 4th Brigade with the paramilitaries. They were doing the investigation in Caucasia. The Attorney General’s Office ordered that the record be taken to Medellin. A truck or a car from the Attorney General’s Office was responsible for bringing the record. On the road, the vehicle was intercepted; they stole the records and that’s where you can really see what happened and the proof of it,” he said.
The Angulo brothers begged pardon. Jaime, for example, said, “I committed an error in financing and providing logistic help, but I never intended displacement, killing. A few days after he got to the ranch, Carlos Castaño called me and he told me that he was going to retire the troops from Ituango because nobody had provided any support; so I sold a steer so I could have some money to give to the commander, Junior, ten million pesos (roughly USD $5,000 at the exchange rate of the time). It was my only contact with Carlos. My contact was with Vicente.”
The history of the Angulo Osorio brothers
To understand the relevance of the testimony of the Angulo Osorio brothers, you have to remember the history of one of the darkest chapters of the violence in Colombia: the massacres in Ituango. And although there are not many legal decisions that recount what happened, there is one that’s transcendental: the conviction by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights (CIDH in Spanish) of the Colombian State for its responsibility in the massacres of La Granja (1996) and El Aro (1997), as well as the murder of Jesús María Valle (1998). In the Court’s judgment, these were part of a criminal apparatus that operated in Antioquia with the connivance between agents of the government and the paramilitary organizations.
In its decision, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights concluded that the government of Antioquia, the Colombian Army’s 4th Brigade, and the paramilitaries operated with a coordination that allowed social and military control in Ituango.
Thanks to this collusion, states the Court, they committed the massacres, tortures, displacements, and destruction of property, using a systematic pattern intended to eliminate social leaders and political opponents. The killing of the human rights defender Jesús María Valle, which occurred in Medellin, was considered an act of reprisal for his public denunciations of the government and the Armed Forces for their role in the massacres.
The decision identifies high-ranking military commanders, such as former commanders of the 4th Brigade, General Carlos Alberto Ospina Ovalle, and General Alfonso Manosalva Flórez (QEPD), who commanded the 4th Brigade at the time of the events. It also identifies some officials of the Governor’s Office in Antioquia, under the administration of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who committed actions and omissions that led to criminal acts. So far, none of them have been prosecuted.
“The government’s responsibility was created by the actions and omissions of its officials in the process of investigation of the events, and for the acts of the members of the paramilitary group to the extent that the government itself brought about its legal structure and, in fact, brought about its existence,” says the decision.
The Inter-American Court for Human Rights held the government of Colombia internationally responsible for the massacres at La Granja and El Aro, and for the murder of Jesús María Valle, and ordered the government to investigate, judge, and penalize those responsible, as well as to adopt measures of complete reparation and guarantees of no repetition. Two decades later, the victims are still waiting.
Because of that, the JEP is trying to tell the story and is listening to all the parties in the armed conflict. One of the most important testimonies about the tragedy of Ituango was the one taken in 2023 from the maximum commander of the AUC, Salvatore Mancuso, who said that former President Álvaro Uribe was responsible for the murder of the attorney who defended human rights, Jesús María Valle, and for the planning of the massacre at El Aro:
“He (Uribe) is connected to a meeting between Carlos Castaño and Uribe’s Secretary of Government, Pedro Juan Moreno (. . .) Pedro Juan basically asked him to carry out that action because the human rights defender was attacking both him and Uribe head-on, and also General Carlos Alberto Ospina and another General that I don’t remember who it was,” testified the former paramilitary boss.
The former President, of course, has said that Mancuso is lying. After Mancuso had testified, the JEP has received other testimonies that are helping put the puzzle together.
The voice of the victims
María Victoria Fallon, attorney for the Interdisciplinary Human Rights Group, told CAMBIO that there is more truth in the court decisions than in the testimony the Angulos have furnished the JEP.
“In the JEP Branch for Admitting the Truth, they haven’t made significant contributions. They were referring to Pedro Juan Moreno, who is dead, but they did not connect any important political leaders of that time and the Governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez. Those contributions don’t have enough weight to get them released from prison, said Fallon.
She also mentioned that “Jesús María Valle’s family was not in agreement with the JEP’s reviewing a situation that already includes a prison sentence, but they thought that the brothers could provide truthful evidence not previously known and were looking forward to that.
CAMBIO spoke with more of the victims, who agreed with Fallon and therefore, they said they thought the JEP should expel them. They all wanted their statements to be confidential.
“They aren’t telling the whole truth. In Ituango we always knew the Angulos were paramilitaries and drug traffickers and not just financers. They admit something, but they’re hiding a lot (. . .) In Ituango everybody knew the Angulos were in charge, and nothing could be done without their OK. They had armed men, they controlled routes, they decided who would live and who would die,” said one of the victims.
“Nobody is explaining how they divided up the properties, who gave the orders at the top, and how they laundered the money they got from these operations,” said another victim.
“The Angulos weren’t just any campesino, they were part of the paras (. . .) Everybody knew that they were in charge in Ituango. People knew that they had armed men and worked with the Army. Even their father, Don Pacho, was known around town as a drug trafficker. Now with this testimony to the JEP they’re trying to pose as the Little Sisters of Charity and saying that they made a few contributions. It’s not fair,” said another victim consulted by CAMBIO.
The role of then-Governor Álvaro Uribe Vélez
The Attorney General’s Office maintains an open investigation of the former President, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, regarding his alleged participation in the massacres at El Aro, La Granja, and San Roque, as well as the killing of Valle. These events were declared crimes against humanity by Colombia’s Supreme Court of Justice. The Office has a Mega-File that began with complaints made by Senator Iván Cepeda in 2012 in a debate about paramilitarism. The case got going when it was in the Investigation Branch of the high court but, just like the case that has him under arrest right now, it was turned over to the Attorney General’s Office in September 2020 after Uribe resigned from his seat in the Senate.
In November 2023, Prosecutor No. 5, assigned to the Supreme Court of Justice, summoned Uribe to give testimony. According to the evidence that was collected, the investigation sought to establish whether, in his capacity as Governor, he had prior knowledge of the armed incursions and failed to take any action to prevent them. Right now, the case is going forward with orders to collect the testimonies and documents that include the contributions to the JEP, including the testimony of the Angulo brothers.
Added to that record is the criminal complaint filed by the current Minister of Justice, the former Attorney General, Eduardo Montealegre and by the former Deputy Attorney General, Jorge Perdomo. It details that, according to several testimonies, Uribe had maintained communication and coordination with key actors in Ituango during the period of the massacres. That line of investigation is intertwined with the revelations the Angulos made before the JEP that are now part of the evidentiary assets that the prosecutor is analyzing.
The Ituango context in the words of the JEP
In an interlocutory order, JEP Justice Gustavo Salazar explained that Ituango is not an isolated case, but rather part of a strategy in Antioquia in which members of the Armed Forces, departmental officials, and paramilitary groups acted jointly to exercise territorial control. The order identified generals and officers of the 4th Brigade implicated in operations that ended up as massacres and forced displacement, and mentioned the coordination with the Governor’s Office to assure impunity.
The confessions by the Angulos contributed their voices to the mechanics of the collaboration between the paramilitaries, the Army, and the Governor’s Office, but they left significant gaps in the chain of command and the final beneficiaries of the operations. The JEP must compare these testimonies with other evidence, including Mancuso’s testimony, to determine whether the Angulos are key to the JEP’s subcase on Antioquia, or if their narrative is calculated to reduce their prison sentences while they protect others. The one thing sure is that the judicial ordeals for Álvaro Uribe, instead of concluding with his arrest, have only begun.