In a letter to President Andrés Pastrana, Human Rights Watch details how the murder of Senator Manuel Cepeda was planned and carried out by Gen. Rodolfo Herrera Luna (since deceased), then commander of the Army's Ninth Brigade.
Respectfully, we ask that you immediately take the necessary steps to discharge Hernando Medina Camacho and Justo Gil Zúñiga Labrador, the two officers responsible for the killing, and order their detention in a maximum security civilian prison. In addition, we urge your excellency to make a priority of a reform of the Disciplinary Code, to ensure that security force officers found guilty by the Internal Affairs agency (Procuraduría) of committing murders and other serious human rights violations be immediately removed from service.
Following an exhaustive investigation, Internal Affairs concluded that Gen. Rodolfo Herrera Luna, since deceased, commander of the Ninth Brigade in Neiva, ordered the murder of Senator Cepeda, apparently in response to the homicide of Army General Carlos Julio Gil Colorado, which occurred in July of 1994 at the hands of the FARC.
The day of Senator Cepeda's murder, Medina followed him on motorcycle while Zúñiga fired shots from another vehicle. Zúñiga used his nine-millimeter pistol to kill the Senator.
To carry out the murder, Medina and Zúñiga had the support of Fidel and Carlos Castaño Gil, who had paid at least three professional assassins from Medellín to help carry out the attack. They arrived in Bogota in a Renault 9 "Brio," which they had stolen earlier. Later, investigators were able to identify the three individuals as Edison Jiménez (aka "El Ñato"), Fabio Usme (aka "El Candelillo") and Pionono Franco Bedoya. According to their testimony, they received 7,000 Colombia pesos for the "job," paid by Carlos Castaño, an intellectual author of the crime.
Evidence supporting Internal Affair's conclusions is abundant and gathered from diverse sources, including first-hand testimonies and ballistic tests.
There is no doubt that the officers carried out this horrendous crime. However, it is also important to note that this is not the only crime for which they have been prosecuted. Medina's criminal record includes three murders, committed on March 27 and November 19 of 1993 and on January 9, 1994, when he was an active member of the Artillery Battalion No. 9 "Tenerife" in Neiva. We are aware of a suspension ordered by a civilian judge in 1995, as well as seven sanctions imposed for military offenses in 1978, 1983, and 1985.
Officer Zúñiga has also been previously investigated for three homicides committed on October 13, 1978, September 5, 1993, and November 19, 1993 in the village of El Socorro and the city of Barrancabermeja, Santander. During this period, he was assigned to Artillery Battalion No. 5 "José Antonio Galán," the Antiaircraft Battalion No. 2 "Nueva Granada," and the Colombia Battalion No. 3 "Sinai." He was also suspended once by a military tribunal in 1980 and again by a civilian judge in 1995. There are several other infractions registered against him.
In its first decision on the murder of Senator Cepeda, Internal Affairs concluded that both Medina and Zúñiga "participated actively in committing the crime; that their conduct disregarded the murdered Senator's constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights; that their conduct caused irreparable damage not only for the family of the deceased but also for the State in general; that they have criminal records for similar acts; that their conduct tarnished the image of the institution of the military; that the posts they occupied during the time that the crime was committed imposed upon them the legal obligation to respect all constitutional and legal principles protecting residents of Colombia; and that their behavior has set a bad example for fellow officers in the Institution, for which this investigative office qualifies the crime committed as extremely serious."
However, in a disputable interpretation of existing norms, Internal Affairs determined that murder is not registered as an administrative infraction within existing regulations. Therefore, the maximum punishment corresponding to their behavior is a severe reprimand, essentially a letter in their employment file.
It is important to note that in its denial of the soldiers' appeal, Internal Affairs pointed out that a "severe reprimand is embarrassingly insignificant, both within the national sphere and before the international community." The investigator called the officers "horsemen of the apocalypse, capable of the most degraded human perversion."
In a hearing before the Senate, the Attorney General pointed out that the guilt of General Herrera Luna and Carlos Castaño Gil as intellectual authors and instigators of the murder is completely clear; that Hernando Medina Camacho and Justo Gil Zúñiga Labrador, along with Castaño's assassins, carried out the crime; and that these facts had been proven to the Attorney General's investigators through first hand testimony and ample documentation. In other words, the evidence is unequivocal. A parallel investigation prepared by the Attorney General's office s currently awaiting a judge's decision.
However, in spite their purported suspension, reliable sources indicate that the officers remain on active duty within the armed forces. Further, Medina apparently continues to direct an intelligence network. Both Medina and Zúñiga apparently move about freely in Bogota. Medina travels frequently to the city of Neiva where his relatives live. This situation has been reported repeatedly to Internal Affairs and the Attorney General, to no avail.
Human Rights Watch applauded your August 12 pronouncement vowing to remove from service those security force officers found to have failed to carry out their duties and to have acted outside the law. You also emphasized that you have the constitutionally guaranteed power to remove from service any member of the Armed Forces.
However, on August 13, the day after your pronouncement, Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramírez Acuña rejected the Cepeda family's request to cashier Medina and Zúñiga, a request supported by Senator Piedad Córdoba, a member of the Senate Human Rights Commission. Using misguided logic — and in clear contradiction to the vow you made the day before — Dr. Ramírez argued that "it would be imprudent to investigate and punish a person for the same crime twice," something that was never suggested by the Cepeda family.
For all of the reasons above, we ask that you immediately remove from service the two officers in question.
We would also like to inform you that one of the witnesses in the case, Elcías Muñoz Vargas, has said that his wife Marly Barreiro de Muñoz, and their daughter, Lina Yoana Muñoz Barreiro, age seven, were forcibly disappeared in 1997. Witnesses testified that the license plates of the car used to kidnap them matched those used by the Army's Ninth Brigade — to which both soldiers belonged at the time of the crime against Senator Cepeda — in this type of operation. We ask you to take immediate steps to investigate the crime and to guarantee the life and well-being of the family of Muñoz, who is currently serving a sentence in the Ibagué jail.
Finally, I would like to reiterate the urgent need to reform the Disciplinary Code that governs the Armed Forces and has directly contributed to the reign of impunity in Colombia. It is enough to simply mention some of the cases in which military killers have been able to evade punishment for their criminal behavior — the case of the Navy Intelligence Network No. 7 in Barrancabermeja and the massacres of Los Uvos and Río Frío — to conclude that the only benefit this has brought Colombia is impunity and international condemnation.
Your esteemed government should support a rapid reform to the Disciplinary Code that reflects the July 25, 1997 decision handed down by Colombia's Constitutional Court, which makes clear that violations of human rights can never be considered an act of service and must be punished by civilian courts. In cases where there is clear evidence of the participation of state agents in serious violations of human rights, such as extrajudicial execution, torture and forced "disappearance," those agents should be discharged immediately and handed over to the Attorney General's office for investigation and prosecution. Cases where military tribunals have already absolved those implicated in such crimes should be re-examined with all evidence included in the investigation for Internal Affairs and/or the Attorney General's office.
Sincerely,
/S/
José Miguel Vivanco
Executive Director
cc. Gen. Fernando Tapias
Dr. Alfonso Gómez Méndez
Dr. Luis Fernando Ramírez
Dr. Jaime Bernal Cuéllar
Amb. Curtis Kamman
