“The kidnapping was inhuman”: the crude story of three middle ranks of the Farc before the JEP

Marcos Alvis Patiño second in command of front 39, Alfonso López Méndez commander of front 27 and Jhoverman Sánchez, commander of front 58, gave a version to the magistrates of the JEP and to the victims, as mentioned by the main leaders of the FARC guerrillas in case 01 concerning the taking of hostages and the serious deprivation of liberty.

The three delivered versions on March 4, 8 and 11, in the presence of lawyers for the victims and the attorney general’s office, where they spoke of their responsibility for the kidnapping of military, police and civilians and answered questions from victims. In addition, they expressed repentance and forgiveness.

Marcos Alvis Patiño, known during the war under the pseudonym of ‘Patequeso’ or ‘Efrén’, answered questions from magistrates and defense lawyers for more than seven hours, in which he detailed the cruel and inhuman treatment suffered by the police officers kidnapped by the guerrillas on the fronts he commanded.

Patiño underlined that “the police officers who were captive were put on a nylon to restrain them”. Even though they had diarrhea “They could not get to the chonto between 6.30 pm and 5 am once the door was closed” and they had to relieve themselves in bags and even “in the containers where they ate”, according to the JEP on its version.

Patiño was the second in command of the 39th Farc front, captured in 2012 and presented by the army as an expert in physical and psychological torture, as well as one of the main kidnapped jailers with more than 50 people in his custody, among whom was the General Luis Mendieta and Ingrid Betancourt.

The general sent a letter which was read by Judge Julieta Lemaitre at the hearing, in which he asked Patiño to acknowledge “That they were close to the pigs, that the constant smell reached them, that they didn’t have enough water and the pigs did. They were thirsty, they felt humiliated ”.

About, the appearing party accepted the situation and showed their own cards in which they illustrated the form of distribution of the camp, the way they pumped water to the pigs, the captives and the guard camp.

“The damage we have caused in this war is too great,” he added of Mendieta’s letter. At the end of the appearance, he assured: “The kidnapping was inhuman, degrading and one of the worst things the conflict left behind”, then reiterates its commitment to clarify and regrets the crimes committed.

“In the testimony of the person appearing, who had for years in his possession police officers abducted during the takeover of Mitú in 1999, included an admission of responsibility for the facts investigated by the JEP in connection with the case 01: Hostage-taking and other serious deprivation of liberty committed by the Farc-EP, ”said the JEP.

The veteran explained that at one point they took the hostages to bathe in the Apaporis River, near the Chiribiquete. Likewise, the maps were used to determine the conditions under which captives were held, but he pointed out that the orders for the size and construction of the dungeons came from the commanders.

Alfonso López Méndez, alias Efrén Arboleda, commanded the 27th front, one of the biggest guerrillas in the FARC. Before the JEP, he said that had 500 guerrillas and 400 militiamen which were present in large areas of the municipalities of Vistahermosa and San Juan de Arama, in the department of Meta.

The veteran explained that his front was financed mainly by the tax on coca paste and the extortion of peasants with “fines”. The breadth of this collection allowed them, as he said, to maintain a presence in many areas of the territory and even to build roads.

“Most of the accredited victims who attended the proceedings were peasants from the region who were kidnapped and tortured and treated cruelly and inhumanly by the guerrillas commanded by Alfonso López Méndez”, said the JEP.

The High Court also ruled that several peasants had been murdered and those accused of being paramilitary collaborators were still missing. Likewise, they said the fines exceeded five million pesos, which drove them into debt and poverty.

“The appearing party acknowledged his responsibility as the commander of the front 27 who carried out the events described, the damage caused and apologized to the victims present. In addition, he provided new information on the territorial control of Front 27, and how the kidnappings were part of this control, in particular on the coca-planting peasants and other settlers, ”said the JEP.

Jhoverman Sánchez, known by the pseudonym of “Rubén Cano” or Manteco ”, the third to be heard by the special tribunal, was the leader of Front 5 of the Farc and later in command of Front 58 and was mainly present in Urabá. In addition, he participated in military operations in Riosucio, Murindó, Vigía del Fuerte, Bojayá, Carmen de Atrato and Juradó.

Magistrate Lemaitre asked him who gave the order to kidnap two Swedish surveyors, a Colombian engineer and two Skanska contract drivers in Urrá, Córdoba, in 1994, to which he said: “There was Marquez, Iván Marquez. It was a Bloc operation ”.

For cases of enforced disappearance, in the middle of the proceedings, one of the victims’ lawyers questioned the person who was in charge in the Dabeiba region, as the victims say. “That it was common that when they traveled from Urabá to Medellín, to Dabeiba, the guerrillas would constantly stop them on a bridge, they would go up, indicate who was to go down, kill them and throw them into the river.”

Faced with this question, asked by one of the 34 victims who sent questions, Sánchez replied: “These events happened, this action was carried out by commissions on two fronts: 34 and fifth, but those of us who have passed did not do these (events).”

“Jhoverman Sánchez acknowledged his participation in the kidnapping of more than 137 members of the public force between the army and the police in the years 1998 to 2005. However, when faced with the harassment that one of the direct victims of these cases reported having suffered in the midst of her captivity, the person appearing replied: “There were other commanders superior to me who were in charge of this. I have never been to any of these camps, the person who sent or received the notes was not me either, if I am not mistaken, the one responsible for it was Marquez, ”said the JEP.

The High Court will continue to listen to middle management on ten proceedings ordered in September 2020 against these appearances. In addition, in the same case, eight members of the former FARC secretariat must introduce themselves.