A former governor has been accused of masterminding a paramilitary massacre of 12 civilians in northern Colombia.
The massacre occurred on October 16, 2000 when 80 men from the paramilitary coalition AUC’s “Heroes of Montes de Maria Bloc” descended upon the Carmen de Bolivar area and started killing unarmed civilians. Afterwards, hundreds of people were forced to flee the region. According to Verdad Abierta, the AUC committed the massacre to gain territorial control over the region. According to a report from the Colombian Air Force, the paramilitaries killed the civilians with “sticks, machetes and stones.”
PROFILE: AUC
According to the Prosecutor General, the former governor will now have to answer in court for aggravated homicide and forced displacement.
Although the Nule Amin has previously been absolved of the crime of murder and forced displacement in relation to Macayepo, the prosecutor said recent confessions by ex-paramilitaries Salvatore Mancuso, Enrique Banquez and Yairsiño Meza justified reopening the case.
According to Meza’s purported testimony, days before the massacre, “the ‘paras’ camped in a site known as ‘Casa Fantasma,’ which was property of Miguel Nule.”
Apart from the Macapeyo massacre, the ex-governor has been accused of being responsible for the emergence and expansion of paramilitaries in the war-torn Montes de Maria region south of Cartagena.
The original investigation into the Macayepo massacre began in 2001. But after Yolanda Paternina, the judge who oversaw the original investigation, was assassinated by paramilitaries in August of 2001, the case was taken over by the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Nearly 600 members of the AUC’s “Heroes of Montes de Maria Bloc” demobilized in July of 2005 as part of the Colombian government’s Justice and Peace program.
Sources
- Miguel Nule Amín a juicio por masacre de Macayepo (Verdad Abierta)
- A juicio, Miguel Nule Amín por masacre de Macayepo (El Tiempo)
- Yolanda Paternina: un crimen cuidadosamente planeado (Verdad Abierta)
- Desmovilización del Bloque Héroes de Montes de María de las AUC (PDF)
- Fiscalía acusa a “Cadena” por masacre en Macayepo (Fuerza Aerea Colombiana)
