Senator Alvaro Garcia Romero, a key supporter of the newly elected Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Velez, has been revealed as the man behind the bloody massacre of twelve peasant farmers in the village of Macayepo in October 2000.
05.06.2002 (By ANNCOL News) A senior member of the Colombian congress, and vocal supporter of extremist president-elect Álvaro Uribe Vélez, directly organised the massacre of 12 civilians by a paramilitary force in the village of Macayepo in October 2000. In a telephone conversation with a local landowner the Senator discussed the planning and preparation for the massacre and appeared to have actually appointed the exact date on which the crime was to take place.
It is believed that Senator Alvaro José García Romero coordinated the movement of paramilitary death squad forces into the zone with the assistance of regional military commanders including Colonel Rodrigo Quiñones Cardenas, Colonel Jorge Castañeda and Colonel Harold Mantilla Serrano and local large landowners including Joaquín Garcia.
The death squad that these men presided over was responsible for the execution of hundreds of civilians and the displacement of thousands more in its area of operation on the border between the departments of Sucre and Bolívar in northern Colombia.
ANNCOL will shortly post an in-depth investigation into the case by Alfredo Castro.