“To clarify the conditions of time, manner and place about this event,” said the Public Ministry.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Nation asked the JEP to call as a witness the ex-commander of the Army, General (r) Eduardo Zapateiro Altamiranda, and other officers and non-commissioned officers who had command and coordination positions in that military unit, to deepen the Truth about the occurrence of different violent events in Urabá, Antioquia, between 1995 and 2011.
The foregoing, after analyzing the voluntary versions delivered by several appearing parties who were part of the Voltígeros Infantry Battalion No. 46, based in Urabá, Antioquia, on different violent acts and alleged relationships between State agents and paramilitary groups.
According to the observation document delivered to the JEP, the reasons that allow requesting, in protection and guarantee of the rights of the victims, the call for voluntary versions of Zapateiro as well as other members of the Army, the Police and ex-paramilitary.
The summons to General Zapateiro would be related to his testimony on the events surrounding the ‘El Aracatazo’ massacre, which occurred on August 12, 1995 at the nightclub of the same name, located in Chigorodó, where 18 people were murdered.
At that time, Zapateiro held the rank of captain and commanded the Córdoba company, which was part of the aforementioned battalion and exercised territorial control in that municipality. That day, two platoons, one attached to that company, were present at the scene and according to the versions of the soldiers appearing in this subcase, they would have allowed the actions of the paramilitary group that perpetrated the massacre.
“Our request is with the intention that the testimony of General Zapateiro serve to clarify and provide more light to the magistracy and the Public Ministry to determine the conditions of time, manner and place that he is aware of this fact, tending to the construction of the truth”, assured the first attorney delegate before the JEP, Alonso Pío Fernández Angarita.
the other witnesses
In the observations document, the Attorney General’s Office suggests listening to Sergeant Baudilio López, who held the rank of corporal, as witnesses in the case, with the purpose of helping to clarify the precise order that, on August 12, 1995, was issued by of the command
Also Lieutenant Juan Carlos Arbeláez, belonging to the Special Forces, who was in charge of capturing some of the paramilitaries who committed the massacre, seeking to clarify how this procedure was carried out and a possible coordination of the late paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño with the Army, in addition to the police officers in charge of the security and protection of the population within the urban area on the day of the massacre.
*With information from the Zonacero Attorney General’s Office