Due to the investigative actions carried out by the Office of the Attorney General and the National Police, it was possible to arrive at the place where alias ‘Caín’ was hiding. He died in the middle of an exchange of gunfire in the rural area of ​​Tarazá (Antioquia). 

As part of the itinerant and coordinated work carried out in the territories as defined by the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, to clarify the crimes of human rights defenders, the most important blow against ‘Los Caparros’, one of the main criminal structures responsible for these killings in Córdoba and Antioquia, was achieved.  

After one year of verifications and collection of evidence, the Office of the Attorney General, through the Special Itinerant Group, and the National Police, identified a house in the rural area of ​​Tarazá (Antioquia), where Emiliano Alcides Osorio Macea, alias Caín, head of ‘Los Caparros’ was hiding.  

During the investigations, more than 60 phone lines were intercepted, 10 search warrants were carried out in different parts of Bajo Cauca, and testimonies and other elements that allowed to establish the exact moment in which the aforementioned leader would be in the property were collected.  

With this information, and the corresponding court orders, a joint operation was launched. Members of the security ring of alias Caín put up resistance when the operation was carried out and as a result there was an exchange of gunfire. Osorio Macea died in the confrontation. 

Alias ​​‘Caín’ had three arrest warrants in force for the crimes of aggravated homicide, and manufacture, trafficking, possession of firearms and accessories. The Special Itinerant Group of the Office of the Attorney General had linked him to different processes due to his participation in the crimes against of four human rights defenders: 

  • Jader Leonel Polo Baltazar and Jader Manuel Pertuz Polo, beneficiaries of the Program (Programa de Sustitución Integral de Cultivos Ilícitos) murdered in the rural area of Versalles in San José de Uré (Córdoba), in May 2019. 
  • Querubín de Jesús Zapata Avilés, president of Plataforma Municipal de la Juventud de Caucasia. The crime took place in neighborhood Las Brisas de Caucasia, Bajo Cauca, in February 2019. 
  • Eladio de Jesús Posso Espinosa, treasurer of the Community Action Board in the rural area El Triunfo, in a small town named La Caucana de Tarazá (Antioquia). His murder was known in October 2018.
     

CTI members of the Office of the Attorney General belonging to the Special Itinerant Group, carried out the fingerprint verifications and examined Emiliano Alcides Osorio Macea´s corpse and established his identity.  

Operation against ‘Los Caparros’ 

The actions carried out by the Special Itinerant Group against the structure ‘Los Caparros’, headed by alias Caín, are part of an investigation project in which 17 criminal acts, 11 acts against human rights defenders and 6 against the population have been clarified. Most of the cases took place in Cáceres, Caucasia and Tarazá, in Bajo Cauca, and in San José Uré, south area of Córdoba. Likewise, 6 convictions against members of this illegal organization were obtained.  

The investigations aimed at locating the head of ‘Los Caparros’, alias Caín, allowed the Office of the Attorney General to achieve 13 important results in different cases, which means a 76.47% progress in clarification.  

The Office of the Attorney General makes this information public for reasons of general interest.