Mapiripán Massacre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mapiripán Massacre
Location	Mapiripán, Meta Colombia
Date	July 15 to July 20, 1997
Attack type	shooting, mass murder,massacre
Weapon(s)	small arms
Death(s)	unknown
Perpetrator(s)	United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC)

The Mapiripán Massacre was a massacre of civilians that took place in Mapiripán, Meta Department, Colombia. The massacre was carried out from July 15 to July 20, 1997 by Colombian paramilitaries, specifically the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

On July 12, 1997 two planeloads of paramilitaries arrived at the airport of San José del Guaviare, which also served as a base for anti-narcotics police. The paramilitaries then traveled through territories where the Colombian National Army manned checkpoints.

On July 15, 1997, the paramilitiaries arrived at Mapiripán. They used chainsaws and machetes tomurder, behead, dismember, and disembowel a number of civilians. Because the bodies were thrown into a river, it is unknown exactly how many people died.

In proceedings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the government of Colombia has admitted that members of its military forces also played a role in the massacre, throughomission.^[1] General Jaime Uscátegui allegedly ordered local troops under his command to stay away from the area in which the murders were taking place until the paramilitaries finished the massacre and left. Retired General Uscátegui was later prosecuted, put on trial, and subsequently acquitted.^[2]^[3]

The 25th of November of 2009, the Superior Tribunal of Bogotá, revoked the previous sentence, and condemned General Uscátegui to 40 years of prison. ^[4]

One of the paramilitary leaders allegedly responsible for the massacre, Dumas de Jesús Castillo Guerrero, alias ‘Carecuchillo’, surrendered to authorities on May 20, 2008. after having been considered dead for half a year.^[5]