PRONOUNCEMENT
Escape of “Matamba”: new episode of government and Military Corruption
Bogotá, D.C, March 19, 2022
The Agrarian, Peasant, Ethnic and Popular Summit, the Coordination Colombia Europe United States, the Foundation Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners, the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, the Social and Political Coordination Marcha Patriotica and the Political and Social Movement Congreso de los Pueblos, in view of the information issued by the media about the disappearance of JUAN LARINSON CASTRO ESTUPIÑAN, alias “Matamba” or “el viejo”, who until today was being held in the Special Measures Unit, one of the high security yards of the La Picota Prison in Bogota, declares to the public:
Alias Matamba is the head of the narco-paramilitary group Cordillera Sur and a member of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC) or Clan del Golfo, who for years through threats, homicides, forced disappearances, torture, confinement and forced displacement, violently terrorized and subdued the inhabitants of the municipalities of El Rosario, Leyva, Policarpa, Cumbitara, Tumaco, Roberto Payán, confinements and forced displacements, violently terrorized and subdued the inhabitants of the municipalities of El Rosario, Leyva, Policarpa, Cumbitara, Tumaco, Roberto Payán, Magüí Payán Payan and Olaya Herrera (Nariño) and the Cauca Pacific.
Recently it became known that Army Colonel (R) Robinson González del Río was recaptured because, apparently, he was part of a criminal structure at the service of Matamba. Later, a confidential document from the Attorney General’s Office was made public where General (R) Leonardo Alfonso Barrero Gordillo is also being investigated for his links with the paramilitary group Cordillera Sur or Cordillera II, former commander of the Armed Forces, former candidate for governor of Cauca for the Democratic Center Party and advisor to the Ministry of the Interior’s Plan of Opportune Attention PAO, for being part of the “Clan of the Gulf” under the alias “El Padrino”. The same officer being commander general of the Armed Forces during the government of Juan Manuel Santos, was the protagonist of revictimization practices by inviting military personnel deprived of liberty for cases of “false positives” to make a mafia against prosecutors and investigators on the imputed facts.
Likewise, the Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation to establish the links between several active and retired army officers and Matamba’s gang. In its most recent edition, SEMANA revealed several testimonies that show a leak of information to benefit Matamba and his men, as well as actions to reduce the intensity of the operations against him in the south of the country, at the same time that the operations against the enemies of the drug trafficker were strengthened.
On March 7, the draft ruling in the study of the extradition request against alias Matamba presented by a US Court was registered. In addition to this, his lawyer’s statements indicate that alias Matamba was willing to collaborate with the justice system.
In the midst of this context, today a new scandal is known that once again puts the Government of President Iván Duque, the Ministry of Justice, INPEC, the Attorney General’s Office, the Police and the National Army in the eye of the hurricane. Matamba’s disappearance occurred with the alleged collaboration of INPEC guards, just seven days after Police Brigadier General Tito Yesid Castellanos took over as the new director of INPEC, after his predecessor Botero Coy was declared unemployed.
What the national government and its institutions have not explained so far is how a high security inmate and extradition request disappears without sounding the alarms or activating the security protocols of the cameras, after passing through several security rings. And neither have they explained about the other inmate, drunk, nor the party in yard 12 of the Erón structure, which was broadcast yesterday.
Once again, the country and the world are suffering from the actions of criminal groups, their exponential growth and the veil of impunity that covers them, thanks to the support, connivance, protection and strengthening by active and retired officials of the Colombian State.
All of the above is further proof that there are important alliances between active or retired members of state institutions and illegal and criminal groups, which we continue to denounce before the national and international community.
Today we continue to demand effective and efficient actions by the entities and institutions of the Colombian State to guarantee the life, integrity and personal freedom of peoples and communities in rural and urban territories.
It is urgent to open a space for deliberation and public constructions on a structural reform of the military doctrine and therefore of the Armed Forces, including the National Police. As well as the creation of a special unit in the Attorney General’s Office and Attorney General’s Office to effectively advance in the investigation and prosecution of the alliances of the Public Forces with narco-paramilitary structures, illicit enrichment and corruption, which are systematic practices that must be addressed from a macro-criminality perspective.
All our solidarity to the victims of the Narco Paramilitarism of the Clan del Golfo embodied by alias Matamba. We will continue working for life, peace, democracy, human rights and against corruption.
Contacts: spokespersons of organizations and networks
+57 312 8512616
+57 313 3919384
+57 310 5618591
