Justice in Colombia

In July 1997, paramilitaries working with the Colombian Army killed more than thirty residents of Mapirip醤, Meta. Army general Jaime Usc醫egui was implicated in the massacre and sentenced by a military tribunal to serve only forty months in prison. In a February 2001 press release, Human Rights Watch criticized the general's sentence as far too lenient and reiterated the call for human rights violations committed by security force officers to be investigated and tried in civilian courts, not military tribunals.