The Colombian Military Forces confirmed this Tuesday the murder of 12 people in a rural area of the department of Valle del Cauca (southwest), while they assured that The massacre occurred due to an internal dispute within a FARC dissident group related to drug trafficking.
The commander of the Armed Forces, Admiral Francisco Cubides, said in a press conference that “seven men and five women were killed.” The massacre occurred in the Sagrada Familia sector, which is part of the municipality of Buenaventura.
Admiral Cubides explained that the case arose as a result of an “internal struggle” within the ‘Jaime Martínez’ structurepart of the Central General Staff, the largest dissident group of the FARC, which has a criminal presence on the coast of the department of Valle.
“There were disagreements between drug traffickers, alias ‘Pablo Villa’ ordered the murder of one of the men, alias ‘Tatín’, who was approaching to negotiate cocaine with the ELN. This demonstrates the bloodthirsty actions of these individuals, to kill each other,” said the high-ranking officer.
In this regard, a statement from the Western War Front of the National Liberation Army (ELN) said today that there were no armed clashes with FARC dissidents. “What really happened was a massacre within the ranks of the narco-paramilitary gang and Jaime Martínez of the extinct FARC-EP in a settling of scores where they themselves murdered the head of finances of that group known by the alias of ‘Tatín’, some of his men and his sentimental partners,” the document stated.
Admiral Cubides explained that among the victims there are seven men and five women. “Among the men, several have been identified as being part of that structure.” “We know that uniformed officers from the López del Micay Police Station who arrived at the site found the victims dressed in civilian clothes and without weapons and clear evidence that they were murdered in cold blood,” he added.
For his part, the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, indicated that the information available, with certainty, is that a confrontation occurred between members of the structure.All victims are members of the same structure“, said Velazquez.
For her part, the mayor of Buenaventura, Ligia del Carmen Córdoba Martínez, reported on Monday that since the information from the locals became known, human rights organizations, such as the Ombudsman’s Office, traveled to the site with the aim of facilitating the transfer of the bodies to the urban area for identification and subsequent burial.
