This next Saturday, April 6, in the village of Pueblo Bello, Antioquia, in a special ceremony, the Office of the Attorney-General will start to hand over the first seven bodies which were fully identified as part of the victims murdered and disappeared on January 14, 1990 in that region by order of Fidel Castaño; two of the bodies were underage.

The Human Rights Unit, with respect for religious beliefs of those affected, has programmed a series of activities which begin with the above mentioned ceremony at ten in the morning, also attended by relatives of other 36 missing persons in that massacre.

Then, in the cemetery of this village, three bodies will be buried. In the afternoon, in the municipality of San Pedro de Uraba, the families’ worship of the other two victims who will be buried in that same locality will be made. On Monday, April 8, religious activities for another body will be celebrated in the municipality of Cañasgordas, and on Saturday, April 13, the handover protocols for the skeletal remains of the seventh victim in Puerto Libertador, Córdoba will be also carried out.

The Pueblo Bello massacre took place on January 14, 1990, approximately at 8:30 p.m., when about 60 men who were part of “Los Tangueros” and worked for Fidel Castaño, arrived to the town, tied 40 peasants and forcibly took them. Then villagers were tortured, killed and buried, including the two drivers and the driver’s mate who transported them to the farm ‘Las Tangas’. In total there were 43 victims, four of them minors.

According to several participants of the executions, the main reason for the killings was Castaño´s cattle theft and later the Humberto Quijano’s murder, farm manager of the AUC leader.

Up to day, eight people of the peasants group of Pueblo Bello town have been technically identified; one more identified on circumstantial evidence and 34 people are missing.

On these facts, there are 23 people already entered into judicial record: 17 individuals were convicted, most of them were charged with counts of aggravated homicide, aggravated forced disappearances, terrorism, torture and conspiracy to commit a crime. Two persons were captured during a trial, one individual was accused and three people were preventively detained. Besides, criminal actions against 30 individuals expired due to their death.

On his behalf, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights passed a sentence which ordered the prosecution and conviction of those responsible for the massacre, the search for victims, the identification and the bodies’ handover to the family members under the obedience of protocols of respect and dignity.