MERCENARY JORGE 40 ADMITS 5 MASSACRES, ONE OF THOSE IN BAHIA PORTETE IN APRIL OF 2004. THE COOPERATION BETWEEN PARAMILITARY AND MILITARY GROUPS IS CONFIRMED.

By: Debora Barros Fince

TWELVE INDIGENOUS WAYUU WERE ASSASSINATED WHEN PARAMILITARY AND MILITARY SOLDIERS COMMANDED BY "PABLO" AND "CHEMA BALA" ERUPTED ONTO THE BAY DESPITE THE URGENT CALLS FOR HELP THE COMMUNITY MADE TO THE MILITARY. MONTHS AGO IN A COURT HEARING OF THE CRIME, A PARAMILITARY CONFESSED THAT THE MASSACRE HAD BEEN PLANNED AND COORDINATED WITH OFFICIALS FROM THE CARTAGENA BATALLION, WHICH CARES FOR THE INSTALATIONS OF THE CERREJON COMPANY, INTERESTED IN EXPANDING THE AS A PARAMILITARY OBJECTIVE.

The mercenary Jorge 40 confessed in a public hearing in the city of Barranquilla on November 8th, 2007 that his team committed 5 massacres, in which the Bahía Portete Massacre that took the lives of 12 indigenous Wayuu is included. This confession confirms the activities of these mercenaries through the Atlantic Coast is at the service of multinational companies and national monopolies that choose methods of crime, terror, forced disappearance, the massacre and selective killings as the form to appropriate the "necessary" lands and ports for the development of their economic projects.

The paramilitary also confessed other massacres that were with corporate interests such as in el Cesar, Magdalena and in La Guajira where mining companies, agroindustry, tourism, maritime and port operations developed activities that submitted their workers and the local population to the persecution of these criminals who were "protecting" these economic interests and creating hundreds of victims in the process. This time it was the Wayuu community of Bahía Portete, that has been denouncing these acts for years through their community spokespeople, whom which the paramilitaries, the government and multinational companies accuse of being collaborators of the insurgency, kidnappings, thieves and so forth. This has been a driving force in delegitimizing our struggle and their occupation of ancestral territory.

Just as the evidence and confessions show, many contributed by the same militaries and paramilitaries, that these operations counted on the support of the armed forces that covered and protected these criminals, as described by one of the paramilitaries that took part in the Bahía Portete Massacre, who told how the massacre had been planned in collaboration with a member of the Cartagena Battalion.

In conclusion the confirming of the known that there were paramilitaries in the region of the Alta Guajira at the time of the massacre, which has always been denied by the governor, the mayor of Uribia, the armed forces and now it is completely clear, the presence of the army on April 18th, 2004. We ask that Jorge 40 in the hearing scheduled for February 18th, 2008 clarify these accusations of thieves and criminals. We now wait for justice to be served.

We call out to all social organizations, non governmental organizations, labor unions, communities to demand that the Álvaro Uribe Vélez administration end this impunity; bring to justice these war criminals in a process that brings forth truth, justice and reparations for the victims of these mercenaries.

El día 13/11/07, Organización Wayuu Munsurat <wayuumunsurat@yahoo.com> escribió: