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Julián Gallo Cubillos is today, officially, a senator of the Republic –product of the peace agreement with the Santos government– and, in addition, the owner of a discreet food outlet, opened last January, with two employees under his charge.
But in 1995 he was alias Carlos Lozada, an elusive guerrilla who was the leader of the urban network Antonio Nariño (Ruan), of the Farc, with more than a score of militiamen in his charge.
(We invite you to read: The clue in the Gómez assassination that leads to the Caguán trial)
Julián Gallo Cubillos, alias Carlos Antonio Lozada, is today a senator of the Republic.
Carlos Ortega / TIME
Only a few people in Palmira, Valle, knew that Gallo had decided to join the Farc and that he was behind the terrorist escalations in Bogotá, attacks on police stations, kidnappings in Cundinamarca and militia training in Ciudad Bolívar.
For this reason, after last Saturday the FARC admitted the authorship of the assassination of the conservative leader Álvaro Gómez Hurtado (November 2, 1995), the spotlights were focused on Ruan and its members.
According to the exFar, the order to kill Álvaro Gómez came through the ‘Mono Jojoy’
Rodrigo Arangua / AFP
In fact, authorities dusted off a statement from a demobilized from the Farc who had spoken about the issue in the past, whose testimony EL TIEMPO heard first.
It is clear that the authorities – at the head of the Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP) – will have to demand from the FARC the evidence that they really ordered and carried out a crime – declared against humanity – that always targeted State agents, paramilitaries and members of the Norte del Valle cartel.
The man who shot is alive
The version of the ex-Farc, known by this newspaper, indicates that the order to kill the conservative leader came directly from the Eastern bloc, the largest military faction of the ex-guerrilla, commanded by Jorge Briceño, Suárez alias el Mono Jojoy.
And he adds that the instruction was received by ‘Carlos Lozada’, leader of the urban network. He even identified the shooter: aka the Prof who, he says, is still alive.
In this regard, Lozada admitted this version to El Espectador on Tuesday night, but assured that all those who participated are dead.
(You may be interested: Samper explains why he feels a victim of the FARC’s silence)
Sources close to that ex-guerrilla told EL TIEMPO on Saturday that there was a hatred from alias ‘Tirofijo’ to Gómez Hurtado, for being he who encouraged the bombings and the military persecution of the FARC.
In addition, that the dissident wing of Iván Márquez and ‘Jesús Santrich’ was sending extortion messages to Rodrigo Londoño and ‘Carlos Lozada’, in the sense that if they continued in the peace process, they would leak information about that assassination.
The order to kill Gómez came from the Eastern bloc, the largest military faction of the ex-guerrilla, led by Jorge Briceño, Suárez alias el Mono Jojoy.
Rodrigo Londoño also admitted that the Farc was responsible for the assassination of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado.
Mauricio Moreno. TIME
Smokescreen?
The concrete thing is that, one by one, the leaders of that ex-guerrilla have come out to confirm the version that they gave to the JEP in a brief letter that they will have to expand in detail.
This Tuesday the turn was for Rodrigo Londoño, head of the Farc party and former member of the secretariat of the extinct subversive organization: “We are the only ones responsible for his death, please stop looking for the drowned man upstream.”
(Also: Farc dissidents double their number of men in just 12 months)
EL TIEMPO spoke with high-ranking Police officers of the time, and they assured that ‘Carlos Lozada’ did not appear in the organization charts of Ruan, but names such as Fernando Ujabán Salinas, alias José Marbel Zamora (captured in 1996 and released in 2000 due to expiration of terms) and José Milcíades Urrego, who entered the weapons through Panama.
La Ruan was so important that ‘Tirofijo’ himself put several of its members on the list of exchangeable for policemen, during the Pastrana government.
“This is a smokescreen to hide other responsibilities,” retired General Luis Eduardo Martínez, who was commander of the Bogotá (Sijín) Judicial Police, told EL TIEMPO from 1999 to 2002.
(You may be interested. The powerful weapons in the photo of ‘Santrich’ and his gang)
However, Martínez pointed out that Ruan was responsible for introducing in Bogotá a kind of terrorism with explosives to attack police stations: “Their operations center was in Sibaté, where they ordered their actions against the civilian population.”
The challenge of justice in this case is monumental, even if it is up to the Farc to deliver evidence that supports their self-incrimination.
(It could be of your interest: It was a mistake to assassinate a politician of the stature of Álvaro Gómez: Farc)
As a result of this episode, the so-called Mondoñedo massacre, which occurred in September 1996 and for which 6 policemen were convicted, was revived. Indeed, the Specialized Court 8 of Bogotá found a captain and four sergeants guilty (in 2017) of having tortured and murdered university students whom they claimed to be FARC militiamen.
The families of the victims still demand truth, justice and reparation.
TIEMPO tried to contrast the version of the ex-guerrilla with Senator Julián Gallo, but at the end of this edition had not responded to the messages.
(See here all the articles of the Investigative Unit of EL TIEMPO)
However, another former member of the Farc who was in the Caguán demilitarized zone told this newspaper that the assassination of Gómez Hurtado was exposed in that scenario and also in Havana (see attached note).
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
[email protected]@UinvestigativaET
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