Date of publication: May 26, 2004
Source: El Tiempo
The ruling of the Administrative Tribunal of Arauca favors the families of those who died in the explosion of a bomb dropped by the Armed Forces. On December 13 of 1998, in an operation targeting FARC guerrillas in Arauca, the Air Force bombed a section of Santo Domingo, resulting in the deaths of 18 civilians, 7 of them minors, and wounding 23 others. As a result of this case, the US State Department suspended aid to the Colombian Air Force base in Palanquero.
Investigations by the Fiscalia General of the nation, military penal justice and Attorney General's office, indicate that three crew members of an old Colombian Air Force helicopter were at fault for the deaths of the 18 civilians. Captain César Romero Pradilla, Lieutenant Johan Jiménez Valencia and technician Héctor Mario Hernandez Acosta are being tried. They are facing up to 30 years of incarceration.
The book "With hands held high" by Germán Castro Caicedo, affirms that those who coordinated the bombings and indicated the target for the launch of a set of Cluster grenades, were United States mercenaries on board a Sky Master airplane in the service of the Occidental Petroleum company. The affected section of Santo Domingo is located 45 minutes from the municipal center of Tame.