IN THE BATTALION

What are your memories of your first days in the army?

As soon as we arrived we were sent to a training camp. We were trained in
counter-guerrilla tactics and did combat training with blanks. They told us
that anyone involved in human rights was a guerrilla. Anyone who was a
peasant was also a guerrilla as far as we were concerned. They trained us
to kill. Whenever you went into operations you took a rifle de cuadre.

What's that?

You took an extra rifle. If there were operations but no action, you killed
a peasant and you gave them the rifle and dressed them in camouflage.
Whenever there was a military target and you didn't kill anyone, you had to
take back a body. That's how we did it.

Who did you kill?

Whoever. When there was fighting we were there in support and, when it was
all over, we would stay in the mountains as infiltrators or ambushers. The
last time we killed an old man, a hunchback. We were after a commander of
the Elenos (ELN). We couldn't find him so we grabbed an old man instead
because he had the same surname on his ID card. My lieutenant told me to
kill him, if I had the guts. I said: `If I have to, I have to.' But he gave
the order to another soldier.

And then reported that he had been killed in combat?

Of course. You set up simulated crossfire in case there is an
investigation. You set off an alarm, four or five shots from each soldier.
It's a sham but the lieutenant gets promotion.

Promotion depends on the number of bodies you bring back?

Yes. My first experience of the way things worked was when we were in a
joint operation with the Tayrona battalion, which I think is from the
Magdalena. There had been fighting in the Sierra Nevada, fierce, bloody
combat with the guerrillas. The battalion had blocked the guerrilla's
supply routes, working with the paracos [paramilitaries]. The guerrillas
were starting to die. They were really hungry and worn down. We went up
when the fighting was over, then retreated and the paracos went in with the
battalion. They massacred the peasants. About 15 of them.

How do the paracos function?

The paracos in the battalion buy the arms.

The army knows who they are?

Of course. They go on manoeuvres with the battalion. They borrow the
battalion's cars to travel to other regions.

Is there a paramilitary base there?

Lucas Gnneco the governor [of Cesar] has his base there. He pays for the
paracos, he finances them.

And how do you know this?

I got friendly with a first lieutenant who had a lot of information. Gnneco
was involved in the death of a human rights journalist who had information
that he was financing the paramilitaries in Valledupar. One day I overheard
two colonels in the battalion talking about it.

Two paracos arrived and took a couple of pistols that had belonged to the
guerrilla we'd captured. They needed guns that couldn't be traced because
there was an investigation going on. They stayed in the battalion for seven
days training us. We were always chatting with them, asking them what they
had done. They offered us money and said that as soon as we left the
military we could join them.

How are the paracos organised in that area?

By barrio. Everything in Cesar is run by Gnneco. He finances and gets the
uniforms for the battalion, and he distributes stuff to the other
paramilitaries.

How much does a paraco earn?

At the start they earn about 340,000 pesos (around US$190). A really
fearless killer will get promoted to leader and his wages will go up.
Whenever the paracos get a tip off, they travel together in the battalion's
transport, the army on one side, them on the other.

The paraco I was talking to asked why I didn't work with them. He knew that
I was from the local barrios [the communas of Barrancabermeja] and that I
would know where the guerrilla commanders lived, where the collaborators
lived. He said: `Why don't you earn some good money, you idiot. Go and join
the paracos in Nueva Granada.'

And how does their training continue? Do they tell them that they are
paracos?

I don't know where they do their training, the information is closely
guarded. They always take reservists because then they are already trained.
And those that go who haven't done military service, they get intensively
trained. As soon as you get there they say that the first thing you have to
do is kill someone in cold blood. It brainwashes you. It was the paracos
who taught us how to torture people.

What did they tell you?

To torture someone you tie them up and you give them electric shocks on the
tongue to make them talk. When they refuse to talk, you use those big long
needles [he indicates the size of his index finger], and stab the needles
through their nails. Then you strip them and make them sit on a block of
ice. And when they still won't give you information then you castrate them
and pour acid over them so that they end up completely disfigured, so that
no one is implicated. The paracos have always done it. Recently in the
Cesar, near Media Luna, they burned a whole family with acid. I was in the
battalion there and a soldier told me about it. He said the son was a
guerrilla and that the paracos were furious with him because he had killed
one of their commanders. So they went into the house and dragged out the
whole family. There were three young kids and they threw acid on all of
them. Acid like that turns a person black.

Who are the informers?

They are always volunteers. If you have a good tip-off you go to the
battalion and they give you camouflage and let you direct the operation. If
it comes off, then you get paid. The first time the paracos pay you up to
700,000 pesos (US$395). But after two months they reduce the money to about
300,000. Then you can't leave, because you're implicated.

What did you hear about places like Barranca?

`Man, it would be great if Ecopetrol blew up so that those sons of bitches
burn,' as they'd say. For them, everyone from Barranca is a guerrilla.

How do they talk about peasants? How do they describe them?

Union members, guerrillas, the USO [oil workers union] they are all the
same for the paracos. They're seen as collaborators and military targets.

Are there a lot of retired military personnel in the paracos?

Phew, almost all of the leaders in the paracos are retired lieutenants or
sergeants, officers. That's why they are so well trained. It's a real
advantage to have someone who knows about combat and patrols.

What do you know about a massacre being planned for Barranca?

There are soldiers who have joined, volunteers, they're planning to return
to Barranca, to infiltrate the area. They'll work with the guerrillas for a
bit and get to know what's going on so that they can hit them hard. But it
will be the paracos who do that, they won't involve the army.

And is there much infiltration?

Yes, whoever wants to can join the guerrillas and it's a disaster. The
paracos' objective is guerrilla collaborators. But it's not the
collaborators they'll kill, it's the ordinary people at home.

Do the officers think they are losing or winning the war?

As an army they're lost. They themselves say so, my major said to us, here
I am, I'm going to be handing over to Mono Jojoy [ELN leader]. They realise
that the guerrillas are really on the up and they are effectively losing
the war. There's been a lot of setbacks. Your average military man is only
interested in earning a wage, nothing else. They don't feel like they used
to, that they were the army, that they loved their country.

When do you think the massacres are going to happen, the ones they're
planning?

They're planned for the end of December. But we're talking about a huge
massacre, one that will be felt all over the country. The one that they're
going to commit in Barranca, adding it all up, is going to hit around 100
people - they're going to go into all the barrios.

Are the people prepared? Do they know?

No, they know nothing, I'm the only one with the information. If I were to
tell anyone the paracos would soon send someone for me.

What's life like in the mountains? Do you get hungry, is it hard work?

Yes. The officers steal the money for fresh food. Always rice, potatoes,
sardines, that was the food every day. Sometimes there was only rice
because there was no money to buy things.

What is life like for young people in the barrios?

For young people here it's all about being in the guerrillas, carrying a
gun, intimidating civilians. They want to feel good. But when they have to
fight they can't. They look down on me because I've just left. I won't do
anyone any favours, won't hang around with them. Why would I want to get
involved in that stuff? If I decide to join the guerrillas I'll take my gun
and go to the mountains. But not here, because here they only kill innocent
people.

What sort of age are most of the paracos?

Mostly young - mainly reservists. The leaders are older. They're
bloodthirsty. The counter-guerrilla paramilitaries carry chainsaws with
them, about this size [he indicates his forearm], for cutting people up.
Any paraco that goes on operations takes one with him. They have mass
graves, over in the Centre [Barranca].

Do they use any as informers?

Sure, there were several in that group who changed sides, the paracos were
going to kill them so they changed sides. But they don't take just anyone
as an informer. Mostly it's the peasants who are infiltrators. Because
anyone who gives a good tip off gets well paid, when it pays off. Really
really good information, with casualties, that's worth around 1 million
pesos (US$560). So it's really tempting.