In the village of Potosí, in the municipality of Cajamarca (Tolima), five people were shot dead by five members of the National Army on April 10, 2004 in the early hours of the morning. The first versions supported by the same soldiers who fired spoke that due to the low visibility that there was at that time they confused Albeiro Mendoza Reyes, Yamile Urueña Arango, the minor Julio César Santana Gutiérrez, 14 years old, Norberto Mendoza Reyes and Cristian Albeiro Mendoza Urueña, six months old, with guerrillas.
This theory was reinforced by the authorities who arrived at the scene and who described everything as an error, by the then commander of the Army, General (r) Carlos Ospina Ovalle and even by then-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
“I remember that at the time as a defender, I said that it was not a military error because all the indications and evidence were indicating that it had not been a military error. Later, it would already be verified that at least one of the people was extrajudicially executed”, Reinaldo Villalba, the Mendoza family lawyer and who faced the case for more than five years, told Infobae Colombia.
Not only did the massacre occur in Potosí, but as Villalba mentions, they finished off a person who had survived the shooting. The man was Norberto Mendoza Reyes, one of the sons of Héctor Mendoza, the father of two of the victims and grandfather of the six-month-old son. What could be verified was that after shooting at all the people, Norberto remained alive and advanced a little on the road but finally one of the soldiers shot him so that he would not tell what happened.
The theory that it had been a confusion was tried to hide saying that the Mendoza Urueña family had left their farm to take the baby to the hospital since he was ill, however, journalists and neighbors of Potosí questioned why the dishes of family meal was unfinished, the animals were not tied up and the farm had not been secured.
“It is not usual in a peasant family that they eat everything they serve out of the same need to recover their energy. They found elements of the baby and the animals without tethering. All of this indicated that the family abruptly left their house at one moment to the next (…) the Army stated that the family had left because the child was sick and they had all left, which is also a bit strange that everyone left. have gone and absolutely no one stays in the house “recalled Villalba, who is still part of the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CCAJAR) that was in charge of the case at the time.
The actions of President Álvaro Uribe and the military leadership
Two days after the murder and when everything was the subject of an investigation, Uribe arrived in Potosí, Cajamarca. From there, he visited the area where the bodies were left and the house of the Mendoza family. The ‘Contravía’ program at the time included the visit that the then President of the Republic and his Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe made to the area and in which they spoke with the military who were in the place.
They told Uribe that the events occurred before learning that they were a family, that is, they reiterated that the soldiers fired because they mistook the five people for guerrillas. After this, Uribe spoke in a presidential speech in which he showed his face to the Public Force and said that he could not distrust them, despite the indications that it was all a lie.
“I am convinced of the good faith of the Army in this mistake. If it were an Army violating human rights, who fired at the peasants, they would have sought to hide, lie or disappear the corpses. I have reasons of deep pain, but I have no administrative reasons to sanction the soldiers and officers, ”he said.
At this time, the investigations were still going on and it was at that time that the Ccajar came to support the legal – criminal work of the Mendoza family, particularly Héctor, who lost his two children in the massacre. From then on, Álvaro Uribe did not comment on the events or on the judicial process that lasted eight years.
But a debate on political control was cited in Congress in November 2004, attended by the Minister of Defense and the Army Commander, Carlos Ospina Ovalle, who had been appointed by Uribe to the post that same year and in which it would last until 2007. “The then commander of the Army even saying in the Congress the Republic that it was that the area was dark that there was fog and that then all that situation generated the massacre, as if that were an excuse to go to arms, “said Villalba.
But the idea that it had all been a military error began to weaken when the findings of Legal Medicine came out. The technical studies spoke that the shots were repeatedly fired and that one of them was even less than 60 centimeters away, which, according to Villalba, resulted in pressure for the soldiers who were already being outlined by the Prosecutor’s Office.
One of them, upon seeing the results, pointed to his partner and Jhon Jairo Guzmán Gallego’s confession was given in 2006 when he said that he was the one who shot the only survivor of the massacre, despite being wounded. This would have been given in a raffle among the same soldiers who defined that he would be in charge of giving the final shots.
The authorities opened an investigation against nine soldiers, but finally five were prosecuted since the Superior Court of Ibagué in the second instance determined that two of those who remained in the process (José Alejandro Gómez Acevedo and Jairo Sebastián Quintero Riaño) were at another point from the sidewalk.
The five soldiers were sentenced to 35 years in prison, with the exception of Jhon Jairo Guzmán who received a 40-year sentence for having murdered the only survivor. But this was delayed because the first instance decision was made by the Third Criminal Court of the Ibagué Circuit in 2009, while the second instance ruling came in 2011, eight years later, by the Court that upheld the sentences.
For Héctor Mendoza, the father and grandfather of the family, the events brought threats and pressure which were then reported by Channel UNO and confirmed by the lawyer Reinaldo Villalba in dialogue with Infobae Colombia. “I don’t know if it was because of calls, but I think they did intimidate him by that means. He had to leave the area immediately and today I do not know his whereabouts. I lost all contact with him when the final ruling was made, ”the man said. He also confessed that despite the threats, no complaints were ever filed to protect the life of the victim.
Finally, Villalba said that he tried to link the commander of the Army at that time, for allegedly trying to cover up what happened by saying “that it had been a situation because there was fog and it was dark, absolutely absurd explanations”, but it was never possible verify or relate to the massacre since the responsibility was assumed by the material actors.
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