35 years after the taking of the Palace of Justice, these are the military implicated and condemned for the ‘retake’

This Thursday marked the 35th anniversary of the seizure of the Palace of Justice carried out by the M-19 guerrilla to press a political trial against the president of the Republic, Belisario Betancur, for failing to comply with the peace process with that armed group.

Despite the fact that the National Army entered the Palace to the so-called ‘retake’, many doubts remained regarding what happened that day, mainly inside the House Museum of the Vase, located a few meters from the Palace and which was taken by the military as an improvised operations post.

The people who were rescued from the Palace of Justice were taken to this place by the army. What was happening on the second floor of that house was unique: those who were suspected of having participated in the takeover were interrogated and even tortured. The victims of these deals were alleged members of the M-19 guerrilla.

In this operation, disappearances of several people were reported who had left the Palace alive and taken to the House. Among them were a guerrilla from the ‘M’, seven cafeteria employees and three occasional visitors.

Due to these facts, the file ‘Disappeared from the Palace of Justice’ was opened in the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, where different Army officers were investigated who controlled the handling of hostages and commanded the ‘retake’. This is how Colonel (r) Edilberto Sánchez Rubiano, who led the identification of the hostages who arrived at the Casa del Florero, was formally linked to the process.

The same thing also happened with General (r) Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, former commander of the XIII Brigade; the former commander of the Charry Solano Battalion, Gen. (r) Iván Ramírez Quintero and the former commander of the Cavalry School, Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega.

After several years of investigations, in 2010 a judge sentenced Colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega to 30 years in prison for the disappearance of 11 people. The sentence was upheld three years later by the Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá, but this time it only held it responsible for the disappearance of the cafeteria manager, Carlos Augusto Rodríguez Vera and the M-19 guerrilla, Irma Franco Pineda says the FM.

However, in 2015 the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice overturned the sentences and absolved him of any responsibility for not having direct evidence against him.

In December 2011, the Court also acquitted Iván Ramírez Quintero, Fernando Blanco and Gustavo Arévalo, but the attorneys for the victims and the Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision that is still awaiting resolution. For his part, the general (r) and former commander of the Army’s XIII Brigade, Arias Cabrales, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for ordering the disappearance of civilians. The decision was upheld in the first and second instance.

But in May of this year the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) ordered his immediate release after studying his case, not without first ordering him to sign a letter of commitment to provide the truth about the events of the retake of the Palace of Justice.

In the case of Colonel (r) Edilberto Sánchez Rubiano, sentenced to 40 years in prison, he is waiting for the Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá to resolve the appeal he presented for his sentence, reports La FM.