was the commanding officer in the region where the El Salado massacre occurred. Those cases are examined in greater detail below. Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, alias Don Berna, said little, though he did mention one police colonel, Danilo González (who had also been previously mentioned by Mancuso), but who Don Berna said is now deceased.117 As the head of the paramilitary groups operating in one of Colombia’s leading cities, Medellín, Don Berna should have had a great deal more to say. In the last session of his confession before he was extradited, he is said to have announced that in the following session he planned to talk about a 2005 massacre at the town of San José de Apartadó, in which members of the military have been implicated.118 In addition, paramilitary leaders’ confessions have the potential to contribute significantly to uncovering the truth about major human rights cases that have been pending for years or even decades. In some of their confessions, leaders have started to talk about these cases; however many questions remain unanswered— including, importantly, questions about their accomplices. The following are some of the emblematic cases in which important questions have yet to be answered.
The La Rochela Massacre Paramilitary leaders Iván Roberto Duque, also known as “Ernesto Báez” and Ramón Isaza (neither one of which has been extradited to the United States) have both been implicated in the notorious 1989 massacre of La Rochela. However, they have so far said little about the massacre that could be used to make progress in the investigation. On January 18, 1989, at least 40 members of the paramilitary group known as “Los Masetos” detained 15 judges and investigators in the municipality of La Rochela, state of Santander.119 The judges and investigators belonged to a specialized judicial 117
Don Berna confession, July 18, 2007.
118
Human Rights Watch interview with Luis González, Director, Justice and Peace Unit, Office of the Attorney General of Colombia, Bogotá, July 16, 2008. 119
Case of the La Rochela Massacre, Judgment on the Merits, Reparations, and Costs, May 11, 2007, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Ser. C, No. 163, para. 74. “[T]he State admitted that on January 18, 1989, at least forty members of the “Los Masetos” paramilitary group, acting with the cooperation and acquiescence of State agents, initially detained the fifteen
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Human Rights Watch October 2008