A Prosecutor of the National Unit of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law brought charges against Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, a/k/a “Jorge 40” as indirect perpetrator of a felony murder in consistent sequence of a serial crime for cases known as the massacres in “El Salao”, Bolívar and “Ovejas” – Sucre department.
The facts mentioned in the investigation took place between 16 and 18 February 2000, Villa del Rosario village, better known as “el Salado”, municipal jurisdiction of “El Carmen de Bolívar” – Bolívar department, when a group of heavily armed men, who identified themselves as members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), killed 38 inhabitants of the town.
According to evidence gathered, said group, after remove the inhabitants from their homes, they met them in the village basketball court, classified them by sex and age and then began to kill 38 people who were identified as guerrillas’ supporters.
During the events, members of the AUC “used cruel execution methods, such as to cut the victims’ body parts, to hang them, to beat them brutally before mowing down their life, so later they administered them coups of grace, but not before cutting off the neck to some of them, other than using firearms, blunt and bladed weapons. Meanwhile, some other residents remained held in the square under the sun and without water, situation which caused merciless death of a 6-year-old child”.
Similar circumstances arose in the municipality of Ovejas – Sucre, in the villages of Flor del Monte, Canutal Canutalito and Bajo Grande, where were used identical cruel methods of execution, and killed 19 other people.