New testimonies by demobilized paramilitaries suggest that a massacre took place in 2004 in Mapiripan, a town infamous for a paramilitary massacre that occurred there in 1997.
Testifying before the prosecutor general’s Justice and Peace tribunal, two former paramilitaries gave accounts of a massacre that killed some 22 people in the town of Mapiripan in 2004.
The massacre was allegedly carried out by members of paramilitary blocs the Heroes del Llano, Calima, Centauros and Guaviare. According to one testimony, former paramilitary boss alias “Gavilan” had personally been seen to kill at least six people.
Authorities had not previously been aware of the 2004 massacre but, according to reports, they are not ruling out the possibility that it did take place, given the numerous accounts of similar killings in the area.
“Up to now all the facts that have been mentioned have been verified and we are trying to establish whether Mapiripan was once more a scene of violence in 2004,” said a source speaking to El Espectador.
Mapiripan suffered a massacre by paramilitary forces in 1997, for which an army commander was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The court found General Jaime Humberto Uscategui guilty of bearing partial responsibility for the massacre of 49 people in the Meta town.
The slaughter was committed predominantly by the Self Defense Forces of Cordoba and Uraba (ACCU), a paramilitary group led by then-commander of paramilitary coalition the AUC, Carlos Castaño.
