A judge in northern Colombia ruled Tuesday that the Colombian state has to pay US $1.3 million to the survivors of the 2001 El Chengue Massacre.
The judicial order will benefit 195 relatives of the 27 people killed by the paramilitary organiztion AUC in the department of Sucre on January 17, 2001, the newspaper El Tiempo reported.
The judge ruled that Colombia police and marine infantry were negligent as they did nothing to protect the villagers in El Chengue although they had been warned of the massacred six months earlier.
According to the report the judge has evidence that some members of the Colombian law-enforcement agencies took part in the massacre.
The judge also ruled that the Colombian state has to build a memorial monument to the victims of the massacre.
Colombia has already been condemned on the same charges by Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the massacres of Maparipan, La Rochela, and Pueblo Bello.
