Spectacular escape of former paramilitary convicted of bloody massacre in 2000

A former Colombian paramilitary, identified as Edgar Ariel Trujillo Cordoba, also known by the pseudonym “Cinco Siete”, escaped from prison on Saturday after being taken to a clinic in Montería, capital of the Caribbean department of Cordoba, for suspected appendicitis.

Trujillo Córdoba had been sentenced for his participation in the El Salado massacre in 2000, which left more than 60 dead and forced over 4,000 people to leave their homes.

According to what was reported by the National Penitentiary and Penitentiary Institute (Inpec), “Cinco Siete” managed to escape when six armed and hooded criminals They broke into the La Esperanza clinic and after reducing the staff guarding it, they fled.

“The criminal action was perpetrated by six hooded men who entered the clinic, while at the exit they were supported by other criminals on motorcycles,” added the information.

Faced with this situation, an operation was deployed to retake the former paramilitary and arrest those who led to his escape.

In El Salado, part of the municipality of Carmen de Bolívar, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) carried out a massacre between February 16 and 21, 2000 in which over 60 people were murdered, making it the grossest massacre in the country.

According to the Inpec, “Cinco Siete” was arrested on March 9, 2007 and sentenced for the crimes of homicide, simple kidnapping, torture, illegal recruitment, conspiracy to commit a crime, displacement and enforced disappearance and theft.

The former AUC member had been held in the medium security and penitentiary establishment of Montería since 2015 and requested in 2018 to enter the Special Court for Peace (JEP), a request which was rejected by this high court. .

“Cinco Siete” was at the head of a faction of the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an association dissolved in 2006 after the disarmament of more than 31,000 paramilitaries.

He was also involved in the murder of the journalist Alvaro Alonso Escobar, shot on December 26, 2001 in Fundación, municipality of the Caribbean department of Magdalena.

With information from the EFE

GRB