PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc at one-year anniversary of the murder of five Afro-descendant teenagers in Cali

On August 11, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project posted: “PBI proudly accompanies Nomadesc on the first anniversary of the massacre of five children from LLano Verde in Cali.”

They add: “PBI sends a message of solidarity and strength to the families and people known to the victims and joins the claim for justice in the case.”

Álvaro José Caicedo, 15 years old; Luis Fernando Montaño, 15; Léider Cardenas, 14; Josmar Cruz, 16; and Jair Cortes, 14 were killed on August 11, 2020.

On the day they were killed, El Pais reported: “When the authorities arrived in the Cañaduzal [sugar cane plantation], they found the young Afro-descendants dead, they were apparently friends and neighbors in the Llano Verde neighborhood.”

Infobae has also explained: “Llano Verde is a neighborhood in the east of Cali, the sector is made up of several families victims of forced displacement.”

The month after the teenagers were killed, Caracol Radio reported: “Representatives of the victims families announced that one of the mothers has been threatened with death by means of a pamphlet that requires her to remain silent and leave the investigative process still for the death of the 5 teenagers.”

On July 29 of this year, Radio Nacional reported: “In the preliminary agreement presented by the Attorney General’s Office, it was decreed that if Gabriel Bejarano, known as ‘El Mono’, pleads guilty and gives information on why these five minors were murdered in August 2020 in Llano Verde, Cali, he would only spend 38 years in prison.”

“The victims’ lawyers have also asked the Prosecutor’s Office to charge Bejarano with the crime of torture, since at least two of the young men have signs of having been tortured, however, the authorities have not accepted the request.”

That article adds: “El Mono was captured on January 15 and according to the Prosecutor General’s Office he was the person who shot the victims with a firearm. Since 16 January, he has been sent to prison.”

And on the one-year anniversary of the killings, Blu Radio reported: “Five young people, between the ages of 14 and 16, were killed by security personnel at a sugarcane mill in Cali’s 15th commune in August 2020. Murderers have yet to receive a final conviction.”

Along with Bejarano, the other two charged are Juan Carlos Loaiza and Yefferson Angulo.

El Tiempo adds Loaiza and Bejarano were security guards with “ties to a dubious surveillance company, whose owner had been captured in 2019 for alleged ties to a transnational network dedicated to arms and narcotics trafficking” and that Angulo operated machinery to reinforce a dam on the Cauca River miles away from the plantation.

That article concludes: “For the families of the five adolescents, the questions remain. It only remains for them to think that there was anger and fury from the perpetrators of the massacre towards these minors because they were in that place, because they were Afro-descendants and because they were having fun eating sugarcane, one of the few activities of the children and young people of Llano Verde with the games on the soccer field, given the few possibilities of progress.”

And Infobae noted on the one-year anniversary: “Despite the fact that several months have passed since the massacre, the murder of these young people has not been clarified, even though there are already three captured who accepted their participation in the event, the testimonies show that there are more people behind the crime.”

That article also reports: “On October 4, a hearing will be held, where it will be announced if there are pre-agreements with the Prosecutor’s Office to accept the charges against the accused.”

#Los5NiñosdeLlanoVerde #QuienLosMato