Court investigates if government liable for deaths of 11 local officials in south Colombia

The Council of State, one of Colombia’s highest courts, has agreed to consider a lawsuit against the State for the kidnapping and murder of 11 local government officials, local media reported Wednesday night.

“Given the legal importance of the decision and the social and political significance of the murder of the eleven members of the Valley as a crime against humanity, and seeing as there is no consolidated position case law on these matters, we shall review the judgment.”

According to Colombia’s Radio Santa Fe, the class action being lodged by the families of the officials has claimed that although they were not killed by the security forces, there was a failure in the supervision and control of public servants.

On April 11, 2002, 11 members of the state assembly of the Valle de Cauca were tricked into evacuating their building in the middle of Cali by a bomb scare. FARC Guerrilla, wearing army uniforms, herded the officials on to a bus and abducted them.

In June 2007, the guerrillas announced the death of the 11 legislators and their bodies were later discovered with the hallmarks of being shot at point-blank range.

Cali’s El Pais newspaper said the court will examine the previous rulings of regional courts, where the case was rejected because it could not be established that the deaths were the responsibility of the state, given that the officials were not directly killed by the state.

But the Council of State will determine whether the failure to prevent the initial kidnapping made the Colombian government liable for the deaths.

Sources