Amnesty International
EXTERNAL (for general distribution) AI Index: AMR 23/16/93 Distr: UA/SC 12 March 1993 Further information on UA 348/92 (AMR 23/62/92, 10 November 1992)
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/184000/amr230161993en.pdf.
COLOMBIA:Pedro JARAMILLO RUEDA, campesino
Humberto JARAMILLO RUEDA, campesino
Mario LOZADO ORTIZ, campesino
Pedro GUEVARA, millworker Fredy PRADA VARGAS, millworker
José Eugenio MORALES GUTIERREZ, millworker
Arnoldo MORALES, whose name was not known when the original action was issued
Amnesty International has received further information concerning the killing of the seven men named above. The men were killed between 17 and 22 October 1992 in Campo Alegre, Huila department, in circumstances suggesting they may have been extrajudicially executed.
Amnesty International had received information that Pedro Jaramillo Rueda, Humberto Jaramillo Rueda, Mario Lozado Ortiz, Pedro Guevara, Fredy Prada Vargas, José Eugenio Morales Gutiérrez and Arnoldo Morales were taken from their homes by heavily armed men. It was reported that the men wore arm bands which identified them as agents of the Department of State Security, Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS). Eye-witnesses had stated that the detainees were forced into a vehicle which then left Campo Alegre on a road controlled by the military. On 22 October 1992 the bodies of all seven men were found showing signs of torture.
In a letter to Amnesty International, the head of the human rights unit Unidad Derechos Humanos, of the DAS, states that a Penal Investigation has been opened into the killings and that the preliminary stage of the investigation, indagación preliminar revealed that the detentions were carried out by six men, heavily armed and wearing armbands which identified them not as members of DAS, but as members of F-2, the intelligence branch of the police force.
Amnesty International reiterates its concern that the seven men were extra-judicially executed and urges that those found responsible as a result of the investigation be brought to justice.