Bogota, Colombia – The Colombian judge who had been handling a case in which soldiers allegedly acting on behalf of drug traffickers massacred 10 anti-narcotics police and a civilian said Friday he is afraid for his life.
Judge Oscar Hurtado had announced earlier this week he was quitting his probe of the allegations, saying a military tribunal should exercise jurisdiction. On Friday he confirmed his refusal to continue, a move that has been challeged by Colombia’s attorney general.
“I’m not going to risk my life,” Hurtado told reporters. “I feel threatened … there are no guarantees of my security.”
“I guess I’ll have to put myself in the hands of God and get eyes in the back of my head. Because I’m very distressed, never knowing what could happen,” he said.
Meanwhile, the commander of the armed forces, Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina, said the military judiciary would not take the case.
On May 22, 10 members of an elite police narcotics unit and a civilian were killed by gunfire from an army mountain battalion near the southwestern town of Jamundi.
The clash originally was described as the result of faulty communication and tragic “friendly fire,” but within days a more sinister story emerged.
At the end of last month, the attorney general’s office issued an indictment for aggravated homicide against battalion commander Col. Bayron Carvajal Osorio, Lt. Harrison Eladio Castro Aponte and 13 other non-coms and soldiers.
In early June, AG Mario Iguaran said the killing of the 11 was not a mistake but rather a massacre that might well have been carried out “on the orders of drug traffickers.”
He said investigators determined that there was prior coordination and planning to carry out the massacre, after which the killers tried to “construct an alibi.”
President Alvaro Uribe had said even prior to Iguaran’s comments that the incident “was a massacre.”
Ospina, Colombia’s top military commander, said Friday that it will up to the Supreme Council of the Judiciary to determine where the massacre case should be tried.
Iguaran had said Wednesday that, notwithstanding Hurtado’s attempt to drop the case, the civilian courts have jurisdiction over the crime.
Hurtado’s ruling, according to the attorney general, was contrary “to what is indicated by the president of the republic, the minister of defense, the law, the evidentiary reality itself.”
Hurtado had ruled that a civilian court could not try military personnel for acts they allegedly committed while in uniform and on duty.
