DAS to issue public apology for M-19 murders

Colombian intelligence agency DAS is to issue a public apology to three of the families of M-19 members it murdered in 1994, Caracol Radio reported.

Current DAS Director Felipe Muñoz will make the apology to the families of Julio Edgar Galvis Quimbay, Enan Rafael Lora Mendoza and Aide Malaver in front of a public audience at the Colombian National Archives building on May 5.

DAS detectives are said to have abducted five demobilized M-19 members between March 16 and 18, 1994, to question them about the kidnapping of Jane Roland Novoa. Their bodies, showing signs of torture, were ultimately found on March 20 in a municipality of the central department of Cundinamarca.

The public apology comes after an order by Colombia’s State Council on March 1 this year that condemned the killings and also ordered the payment in compensation of $233,600 to all the families involved.

Despite there being five M-19 victims of the DAS in this incident, to date, it has only been reported that the apology will be given to three of the victims relatives. Information of the event is yet to be published on the offical DAS website.

The M-19 were a leftist guerrilla organization in Colombia that demobilized in 1990.

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