Colombian prosecutors accused a former Army commander of being an
“essential element” of the murder of young men from Soacha that later
were presented as alleged guerrillas killed in combat.
According to Radio Caracol, the station had access to documents of the Prosecution that are part of the ongoing investigation against retired Colonel Alvaro Diego Tamayo and 17 other soldiers.
The members of the military are held responsible for the disappearance and murder of Julian Oviedo Monroy, who disappeared in Soacha in March 2008 and was reported as guerrilla killed in combat one day later in Ocaño, close to the border with Venezuela.
According to the prosecution, Tamayo was essential in the civil and military structure of recruiting young men from Soacha and other cities. These recruits were then delivered to troops of the Santander Battalion, who then murdered the victims and declared them as rebels killed in combat, the report says.
The military’s actions show they “apparently were fully aware of what they were doing” which “corresponds to a previous agreement they had with other members of the army and civilians, in order to demonstrate successful operational results,” the documents of the Prosecution says.
Tamayo also “signed a series of documents designed to give legality to a hypothetical fight where Julian Oviedo Monroy was killed.”
Army Inspector General Carlos Orlando Quiroga indicates that the intelligence report about the operation in which Monroy was killed “is a superficial analysis that does not take any judicial elements into consideration. And does not even have an evaluation.”