Luis Alfredo Garavito released after receiving treatment for leukemia

On April 22, 1999, a homeless man heard the cries of a child near a farm in the Meta Department. There he found a sinister scene: a little boy was tied to his feet and hands, bare and about to be abused by Luis Alfredo Garavito.

The minor was saved from being abused, but at least 172 minors in Colombia between 1992 and 1999 were killed and abused in Garavito. The rapist was captured thanks to the prompt action of the authorities and after several hours he confessed to his crimes.

Colombian justice sentenced him to 40 years in prison, a sentence he is serving in the maximum security prison of ‘La Tramacúa’, in Valledupar, where he attempted suicide in 2006. However, in 2020 the serial rapist was diagnosed with leukemia and for a few days he was admitted to Rosario Pumarejo Hospital in López, in Valledupar.

After several relapses, he had to be transferred to the health unit of the maximum security prison in La Tramacúa, where he was serving his sentence, until Friday, July 9, when he was released after more than six months. in unity.

“Friday July 9, 2021, they examined him, gave him medical leave. He moved from the health area to the high security pavilion, due to an improvement in his state of health ”, A source from the National Penitentiary and Penitentiary Institute (Inpec) revealed to the newspaper El Espectador.

In this order, the rapist returned a few days ago to the horror pavilion of La Tramacúa, a dreaded space located at the back of the prison, which has two corridors and 20 cells where the most disowned murderers and rapists coexist. of Colombia, such as Rafael Uribe Noguera, in the case of Yuliana Samboní, and Manuel Octavio Bermúdez, better known like “the monster of the Cañaduzales”.

Garavito will continue to share the pavilion with Javier Velasco Valenzuela, sentenced to 48 years in prison for the torture and murder of Rosa Elvira Cely.

Crime investigation

In June 1999, an interdisciplinary group of the Public Prosecutor’s Office was created, with members of Extinct DAS, Sijín and the forensic psychiatrist, Cali section, Óscar Armando Díaz Beltrán, who assessed the various cases then under investigation in other regions of Colombia.

For this, they looked at the analyzes carried out by Buga’s morphologist, Carlos Hernán Herrera Jaramillo, main promoter of the investigation into the phenomenon, and the presentation of the prosecutor Fernando Aya de Villavicencio on the Morera Lizcano case. With this data, they were able to determine what crimes Garavito was involved in.

On October 28, prosecutor Lily Naranjo and researcher Aldemar Durán spoke with Garavito for over nine hours. In this interview, Garavito confessed: the homicide of a minor in Santa Barbara, Palmira, Valle del Cauca; the murder and rape of three children in Genoa, the case of the disappearance of a child in Tunja; and another crime in Villavicencio.

After completing the investigation, the CTI, in collaboration with the psychiatry section of forensic medicine, established the probative reality which certified the clarification of the crimes. In the following months, Garavito spoke of more homicides and rapes, in addition to indicating the places where there were bodies buried.

KEEP READING: