| Mapiripán Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mapiripán, Meta Colombia |
| Date | July 15–20, 1997 |
| Target | Civilians / presumed guerrillas |
| Attack type | shooting, mass murder, massacre |
| Weapon(s) | small arms |
| Deaths | unknown |
| Perpetrator(s) | United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) |
The Mapiripán Massacre was a massacre of civilians that took place in Mapiripán, Meta Department, Colombia. The massacre was carried out from July 15 to July 20, 1997, by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an outlawed right-wing paramilitary group backed by elements of the government.
On July 12, 1997, two planeloads of paramilitaries arrived at the airport of San José del Guaviare, which also served as a base for anti-narcotics police. The paramilitaries then traveled through territories where the Colombian National Army manned checkpoints.
On July 15, 1997, the paramilitiaries arrived at Mapiripán. They used chainsaws and machetes to murder, behead, dismember, and disembowel a number of civilians. Because the bodies were thrown into a river, it is unknown exactly how many people died.
In proceedings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government of Colombia admitted that members of its military forces also played a role in the massacre, through omission.[1] General Jaime Uscátegui allegedly ordered local troops under his command to stay away from the area in which the murders were taking place until the paramilitaries finished the massacre and left. Retired General Uscátegui was later prosecuted, put on trial, and subsequently acquitted.[2][3]
On 25 November 2009, the Superior Tribunal of Bogotá revoked the previous sentence, and condemned General Uscátegui to 40 years in prison.[4]
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Hernán Orozco, the former colonel accused of failing to stop the massacre, was given a forty-year sentence for murder in 2007.[5]
One of the paramilitary leaders allegedly responsible for the massacre, Dumas de Jesús Castillo Guerrero, a.k.a. ‘Carecuchillo’, surrendered to authorities on May 20, 2008. after having been considered dead for half a year.[6]
Jaime Humberto Uscategui, a former army general whom it found had ignored calls for help during the massacre,[7] was arrested in 1999.[8] His trial took place in a military court and he was given forty months in prison for "omission" in 2001.[5][8]
On 25 November 2009,[8] the Bogotá superior tribunal announced in a ruling of ninety pages that it had granted a forty-year prison sentence to Jaime Humberto Uscategui.[5][7][9][10] It was the longest sentence that had ever been given to an officer in the army in the country's history.[7] Jaime Humberto Uscategui was declared guilty of kidnapping, murdering and falsifying documents belonging to the public.[7] His sentencing came at the age of 61.[5] He is still innocent, according to himself.[7] He said, "I have the tranquillity of innocence and I also have the tranquillity of proof".[5]