The Casacará district of Codazzi (Cesar) was the scene of a violent incursion by the Juan Andrés Álvarez front of the Northern Block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). On July 3, 2000, on the instructions of Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado, alias El Tigre, armed men intimidated the population, took five people to a small square and killed them.

The Attorney General’s Office, through the Special Directorate against Human Rights Violations, obtained evidence that indicates that alias El Tigre, in his capacity as ringleader, ordered the transfer of at least 15 members of his structure dressed in official clothing, carrying rifles and with the precise order to shoot some inhabitants, who were wrongly accused of being collaborators of other armed groups that commit crimes in the region.

The five victims were farmers and workers between 26 and 44 years old.

In that sense, a specialized criminal judge from Valledupar (Cesar) sentenced this former paramilitary leader to 40 years in prison for the crime of aggravated homicide. Additionally, he was disqualified from exercising public rights and functions for 20 years, and the payment of a fine equivalent to 400 current legal monthly minimum wages.

Esquivel Cuadrado was notified of the sentence in the High and Medium Security Jail and Penitentiary of Palmira (Valle del Cauca), where he remains deprived of liberty for other criminal acts such as homicide, forced disappearance and the kidnapping of a relative of the Nobel Prize winner in literature, Gabriel García Márquez, which occurred in August 2018.

The known conviction is of first instance and legal remedies apply against it.

This information is published for reasons of general interest.