A former member of demobilized paramilitary organization AUC was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for the 1990 massacre of 43 people.
Edilson Antonio Cardona, alias “Sapo Armado”was initially sentenced to 40 years in prison, but saw his sentenced reduced because he plead guilty to the charges of aggravated forced disappearance, multiple aggravated murder, terrorism and torture.
Sapo Armado is the third paramilitary to be sentenced for the massacre of inhabitants of the village of Pueblo Bello in the Antioquia department.
In March, the court convicted Manuel Arturo Salom Rueda, alias “William,” the former bodyguard of paramilitary boss Fidel Castaño, and Jesus Aníbal García Hoyos, alias “Marlon” to 30 years in prison.
The events surrounding the case began on 14 January 1990, when a group of armed men burst into the small town in the municipality of Turbo, dragged the victims from their houses, and took them to a farm called “Las Tangas,” located in Valencia, Cordoba, and owned by the Castaño family.
The bodies of only six of the 43 people who were disappeared by the paramilitaries were found on a farmhouse that was owned by AUC founder Fidel Castaño.
The AUC, founded by Castaño and his brothers and officially demobilized since 2006, is suspected of tens of thousands of murders on Colombian civilians.
