The eleven deputies kidnapped by the Farc died in a blast

It was in one minute, with a single burst of submachine gun that blinded the lives of eleven of the twelve deputies who were held by the FARC between 2002 and 2007, according to the testimony of aliases ‘Cricket’, OR Hector Julio Villarraga, a former guerrilla who appeared before the high court to fulfill the commitment of the Peace Agreements to render the truth about the events of the internal conflict that Colombia experienced between 1958 and 2017.

In the words of the ex-guerrilla before the JEP: “I am here to narrate what happened with the deputies of the Valley because the Final Agreement obliges us to do so. Just as we were so committed to the armed struggle, we will be so with the clarification of the truth, in an attempt to heal the wounds of the conflict “.

According to his version, under the orders of the then Farc Commander, alias ‘Alfonso Cano’, he had orders to execute them if a situation arose in which he lost control of the group, which had been found guilty after years of This will move between the rural areas of the departments of Valle and Nariño.

According to alias testimony ‘Cricket’, “The order was to execute them if there was a rescue attempt or if we faced a situation in which we could lose control”, according to Cano’s indications, in the most critical moments that said guerrilla had with the Colombian state.

This execution was done cleanly: in a single burst and took a minute. No guerrilla fell for this act and only survived Sigifredo López, who has subsequently carried out various acts of activism requesting that the guerrillas tell the truth of the incident.

The tale of alias ‘Grillo’

Villarraga narrated the precarious conditions in which the group of assembly members were subjected, kidnapped in an operation in broad daylight, in the center of Cali, on April 11, 2002.

According to the legal transcript of the JEP: “The appearing party described the harassment to which the deputies were subjected: marches of up to 12 hours in the jungle, a precarious diet based on legumes and grains, prolonged exposure to inclement weather, little or no privacy when they performed their physiological needs and the moments in which they were tied with chains to their beds or trees, as a method of punishment among others “.

Also, ‘Cricket’ confirmed that the group traveled through extensive rural and jungle areas in the southwestern part of the country to evade the siege of the National Army. The group was divided in two, later regrouped and each of the inmates had an assigned guardian, strictly following orders from aliases ‘Alfonso Cano’.

In the same statement of the JEP, aka ‘Cricket’ evidenced the chain of command to which he followed instructions: “The appearing party denied having received orders from Pablo Catatumbo or Édgar López, alias ‘Pacho Chino’, commanders of the Western Bloc, during the captivity of the deputies. On the other hand, he did say that he had worked in cooperation with other fronts and blocs of the then Western Joint Command for logistical issues “.

When the time comes, under pressure from the Army, ‘Cricket’ proceeded to the summary execution of eleven of the twelve deputies of the Valley: “Villarraga narrated how, following orders from ‘Cano’, he cleaned and buried the corpses, and proceeded to deliver the coordinates to be delivered to a humanitarian mission headed by the Red Cross. They were handed over to their relatives almost three months later, in Cali, thanks to this mission “, he narrated before the JEP.

Subsequently, the Western Joint Command disclosed false information about the final fate of the assembly members and began a game of tensions between this guerrilla, the government and civil society, to find the whereabouts of the bodies, which concluded three months after his death.

Hector Julio Villarraga apologized to the relatives of the victims of his crime gathered at the hearing before the JEP.

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