This Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, Cajar, a press conference was held to announce the acts of commemoration of the collective forced disappearance case of Colectivo 82, with the presence of the victims Nancy García Villamizar, sister of Orlando García Villamizar, Rosalba Campos, sister of Gustavo Campos Guevara, and Teresa Sanjuan, sister of Alfredo Rafael Sanjuan Arévalo and Samuel Humberto Sanjuan Arévalo, students who disappeared in 1982. The lawyer in the case, Eduardo Carreño Wilches, also intervened.
“Their mothers and fathers were good citizens, and they all died with the pain of not being able to see the faces of their children back home. Only a few of their siblings and children are left with the hope of knowing what happened and finding their bodies,” recalled Nancy García Villamizar.
This year marks 40 years for these families without knowing the whereabouts of these thirteen children, siblings, parents, cousins, nieces, nephews, and relatives still missing.
Relive the press conference here :
Between March and September 1982, 13 people were detained, tortured and disappeared in operations involving intelligence structures of the National Police (F-2) and drug traffickers (Muerte a Secuestradores – MAS), who sought retaliation against guerrilla groups accused of kidnapping and murdering the three children of Jáder Álvarez, a well-known drug trafficker.
Among the missing detainees were nine students from the Universidad Nacional, the Universidad Distrital and the Colegio Gonzalo Bravo Páez, a farmer, a metal worker and two inhabitants of Gachalá, Cundinamarca.
The intense work of the victims’ families succeeded in initiating a tortuous judicial process against drug traffickers and police officers involved in the detention, torture and disappearance of the members of Colectivo 82.
Nevertheless, the case remains in total impunity. In 1987, an inspector general of the National Police, acting as a first-degree judge, decided to close the case. In view of this decision, Prosecutor 53 of the Human Rights Unit requested a review and on June 22, 2011, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the opening of an investigation against the members of the National Police involved in the crime.
Despite the fact that in these 10 years investigations and evidence have been carried out, these have not yielded favorable results for the victims. It was only last year that the 52nd Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights Violations, in an order dated November 2, 2021, summoned former Lieutenant Colonel Nacín Yanine Díaz, in his capacity as head of DIPEC at the time of the events, Major Ernesto Condia Garzón and Agent Luis Ernesto Suárez Ceballos for questioning.
On the day of the hearing, Lieutenant Colonel Yanine did not show up and only Colonel Condia’s statement was received, yet another affront to the victims who have been demanding truth, justice and the appearance of their missing relatives for four decades.
This case is recognized as one of the first documented cases of forced disappearance in Colombia, and can be considered emblematic because as a result of these events, a long dirty war strategy began, and “MAS” (Death to Kidnappers) was created, which is the embryo of today’s paramilitarism. In these circumstances, the relatives chose to organize themselves in the search for truth, justice and integral reparation, founding what today is the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared, Asfaddes.
The case of Orlando García Villamizar and the other disappeared detainees reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which in 1991 ruled on the merits of the case:
“To declare that the Government of Colombia has failed to comply with its obligation to respect and guarantee Articles 4 (right to life), 5 (right to personal integrity), 7 (right to personal liberty) and 25 (on judicial protection), in connection with Article 1. 1, enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights, to which Colombia is a State party, with respect to the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of the following persons: Orlando García Villamizar; Pedro Pablo Silva Bejarano; Rodolfo Espitia Rodríguez; Edgar Helmut García Villamizar; Gustavo Campos Guevara; Hernando Ospina Rincón; Rafael Guillermo Prado V.; Edilbrando Joya Gómez; Francisco Antonio Medina; Bernardo Helí Acosta Rojas, and Manuel Darío Acosta Rojas.
For all of the above reasons, the relatives Nancy García Villamizar, Rosalba Campos, and Teresa Sanjuan, on behalf of all the members of Colectivo 82, demand that the case be declared a crime against humanity and that those responsible for the entire criminal structure behind these events be brought to justice.
The Colombian State must respect its duty to guarantee the right to life, judicial protection and personal integrity of its citizens. With Colectivo 82, the victims are demanding the truth and punishment for the perpetrators so that impunity can end, after 40 years of pain and uncertainty for these families. The truth about the Colectivo 82 case is also the truth about the origin of this heinous crime that according to the Observatory of Memory and Conflict of the CNMH until August 2018 had left 80,000 victims.
The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective invites you to join us in this commemoration and we share the planned agenda:
Commemoration agenda, 40 years after the event
In the auditorium Mayor HERMANOS SANJUAN of the Universidad Distrital, the commemorative forums for the thirteen victims of disappearance in the case known as Colectivo 82 will take place.
These actions are coordinated by the Education Department of the Universidad Distrital and managed by Colectivo 82, together with partner organizations such as Asociación Otras Voces, MOVICE, Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo and the Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dada por Desaparecidas UBPD (Search Unit for Missing Persons UBPD).
Friday, March 4th:
It recalls the detention, disappearance, on March 4, 1982 and August 18, 1982:
Orlando García Villamizar – student of I Sem of law UNal
Edgard Helmunt García Villamizar – Sociology student UNal
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, March 18:
It recalls the disappearance, on March 8, 1982, of:
Alfredo Rafael Sanjuan Arévalo – Cadastral Engineering student UDistrital
Samuel Humberto Sanjuan Arévalo – Anthropology student UNal
3:00PM – 4:00PM construction of the forest of memory
5:00pm – Alfredo Rafael Sanjuan Arevalo Graduation Ceremony
Friday, May 13:
It is recalled the disappearance, on March 4 and August 18, 1982 of:
Pedro Pablo Silva Bejarano – Nursing student UNal
Rodolfo Espitia Rodríguez – Sastre
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, May 27:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on August 23, 1982 of
Gustavo Campos Guevara – Student Ins. systems UNal
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, June 10:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 11, 1982 of
Hernando Ospina Rincón – Automotive Mechanic
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, June 24:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 12, 1982 of
Rafael Guillermo Prado Useche – Law student UNal
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, June 08:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 13, 1982 of
Edilbrando Joya Gómez – Law student UNal
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, June 22:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 13, 1982 of
Francisco Antonio Medina Londoño – Farmer
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, August 12:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 15, 1982 of
Bernardo Elí Acosta Rojas – Farmer
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
Friday, August 26:
It is recalled the detention and disappearance, on September 15, 1982 of
Manuel Darío Acosta Rojas – Sastre
3:00PM – 5:00PM Forum
Relatives talk about their particular experience of the disappearance of their loved one. A guest talks about what was happening in the region at the time.
