Reply #11: Colombia's (Para)military (ghastly, sadistic acts) [View All]

Colombia's (Para)military
by Fernando Garavito
May 03, 2004

Palenque/Lord of the Flies
On the 27 of February, 1997, the people of Bijao del Cacarica, a population no longer found in Northeastern Colombia, were invited to a soccer match.
(snip)

Once the teams were on the field, the referee sounded his whistle. Each team took up positions on the field. Then a helper brought a large bag to the centre of the field, emptying its contents at a point equidistant from the two forwards who would start the game with the initial kickoff. The audience cried out in horror. The soccer ball was the head of Marino Lopez, one of their friends.

For long minutes the only sound heard by the inhabitants was the cracking of the players' feet on the man's destroyed skull. In the oppressive sun of that unending morning, the paramilitary team past the defense of its opponent and scored twice. After the second goal the captain announced that the soccer ball would no longer serve, and so the game would have to end.

The members of the Army team had to follow. They didn't like to lose, but the game had been clean. The forward, who had come close to scoring twice, apologized to his companions. "The ball was terrible", he said. "Hopefully next time they will inflate it properly before the game."

Next, the players hugged and congratulated each other and went off to get drunk at the store in town. "The town is now free of those gangsters," said the chief of the paramilitaries. Everyone applauded.

The above alone would be quite adequate for the script of a horror movie. But it is just a small part of what happened in Bijao.

"On February 27 I was there in Bijao", a witness told 'Justicia y Paz' (3). "A group of paramilitaries arrived, along with a soldier from the army, at around 9am. Marino Lopez told me: 'I'm afraid, I'm not sure whether I should go to Turbo'. The paramilitaries and army soldiers surrounded the entire village. The people had already left, some up the mountain, others to La Tapa. They brought us all together and threatened as. They told Marino to get some coconuts. He was afraid, and we told them 'let's go'. Marino told them 'you gave us three days', and one of them said 'you are leaving today'. Two of the army soldiers took Marino. After he got them the coconuts, he put on his boots and sweater, and they asked him for his documents. One of them said: 'Now we want your identification, guerrilla. You can pick it up from your mom.' And they accused him of being a guerrilla. He told them 'You know I am not a guerrilla'. They insulted him, beat him. One of the criminals took a machete and cut him. Marino tried to flee, running into river, but they said: 'if you flee it will be worse.' He returned, extending his left arm out of the water. One of the paramilitaries cut his head off with the machete. Then they cut his arms, then they cut his legs off at the knees. And they began to play soccer with his head. We all saw it. There is nothing else to say. It's all said. They are damned, with no faith, no morals. It was all gray, the soul, the sky, the earth. It was all silent. It was all terror. Bombardment of our bodies and souls. Death turned into a game."

This was the beginning of the year of terror that the region of Cacarica lived in 1997. On April 4, according to testimonies, a commando unit of military and paramilitary soldiers cantoned in Apartado ripped open the stomach of Daniel Pino in front of international observers who had arrived days earlier to gather evidence on previous human rights violations in the area. The campesino died after an hour of agony, during which no one could help him, trying to put his intestines back into his body.

On May 28 of the same year, army soldiers and paramilitaries (I apologize in advance, I will be repeating this phrase, "army soldiers and paramilitaries", as many times as is necessary) removed the scalp of Edilberto Jimenez, from Pavarando, and wandered around town with the head covered with flies, and destroyed his body in front of his parents' house. On June 15, in Bella Vista, Bojaya, army soldiers and paramilitaries beheaded Wilmer Mena and cut his arms off. On November 26, army soldiers and paramilitaries took Heriberto Areiza and Ricaurte Monroy, from La Balsita, out of their homes, gouged out their eyes, and filled the eye sockets with acid.

More:
https://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5455