Prosecutor's Office explained why he was unable to carry out the lifting of the bodies of the victims of the massacre in Arauca

On the morning of Tuesday, April 19, the Attorney General's Office issued a statement in which it confirmed that it was unable to carry out the lifting of the bodies of the people who were killed in the rural area of Tame, in Arauca. According to what the authority emphasized, it was difficult to get to the place due to the complex weather conditions. Likewise, the lack of a helicopter of its own made the team responsible for going to the sector known as 'Las Nubes' impossible. The multiple homicide occurred last Sunday, April 17.

“Once the fact was made known following a telephone call, emergency care was started for the injured people who were taken to hospitals in Tame and Saravena. In addition, the Sectional Director of Arauca maintained permanent communication with the Government of that department and the Office of the Ombudsman”, the document presented by the Prosecutor's Office reads. Four people died there, including two minors, all from the same family.

The bad weather and the lack of an effective means of transport, the Prosecutor's Office said, were compounded by public order circumstances in the area. The insecurity there made it not easy to enter the place of the traveling group, which was composed of a delegated prosecutor, the judicial police of the CTI (Technical Investigation Corps) and the Sijin of the National Police.

“For this displacement, the Public Prosecutor in the case had to have the support of soldiers from the XVIII Brigade and the VIII Division of the National Army and the National Police who guaranteed her security conditions for the judicial commission to arrive at the place where the massacre occurred,” added the Prosecutor's Office.

Despite the fact that the team of experts were unable to reach the area, the agency stressed, it was achieved that the sectional director was in constant contact with the relatives of the victims of the case. “They were informed of the need to carry out the judicial proceedings, but their decision was to recover the bodies of their relatives and take them to the local funeral home,” the statement read.

The representative of Tame, Arauca, Juan Carlos Villate, denounced that it was some peasants who took charge of transferring the bodies of the four citizens to the respective authorities, since, after about 19 hours, there were no professionals present to carry out the removal of the bodies. “The bodies transferred by the same community. They are already in the Tame morgue, the funeral homes have entered, the doctors started the respective necropsies,” Villate said in a conversation with W Radio.

As explained by the command of the Eighth Army Division, civilians were attacked, indiscriminately, by armed persons who identified themselves as members of the missing FARC. “Armed groups organized against defenseless civilians, violating human rights and violating international humanitarian law. These facts will be reported to the competent authorities (...) the wounded from this cowardly attack were taken to San Antonio de Tame Hospital (Arauca), where they are currently being treated by medical personnel”, the security forces mentioned. The four people were mobilizing in a Chevrolet Vitara vehicle.

The victims were identified as Elson Portela, age 51; Angel Julián Estrada, age 48; Delvis Arbey, age nine, and Briangis Yelina Prada, age four. “Let us remember that strong clashes have been taking place in this area between the ELN and the FARC, so that, surely, it responds to the territorial control of these armed organizations. We reject this indiscriminate attack that violates Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” Villate added to Radio Meridiano 70.

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