Declaration of Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadradoiradvocates.mayfirst.org/sites/default/files/12.03.09 Decl El Tigre... · 1. My name is Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado. As I will describe

Declaration of Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado

I, Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado, swear under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States that what follows is based on my direct and personal knowledge, and is truthful and correct:

1. My name is Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado. As I will describe herein, my alias was “El Tigre,” and I was the commander of the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front of the Northern Block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia) from the middle of 1996 until the moment of my capture on July 19, 2000. The Front was under the command of Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias “Jorge 40.” My Front operated in the municipalities of Bosconia, El Paso, La Jagua de Ibirico, Becerril, Agustín Codazzi, San Diego, La Paz, and Chiriguaná. Within these municipalities we focused our operations especially in the townships of Cuatro Vientos, La Loma, Loma Linda, Rincón Hondo, Loma Colorada, Casacará, Estados Unidos, Palizá, Vedecia, and Minguillo. See Exhibit A, map of the region in Colombia that delineates the operation area of the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front.

2. The AUC was there because these were known FARC strongholds, and the

AUC’s mission was to erradicate the FARC wherever we found it. The AUC had every intention of attacking these areas and using our methods to make sure that the people in these areas would never again support the FARC. Drummond’s ultimate decision in November, 1999 to provide the AUC’s Juan Andres Alvarez Front substantial payments allowed us to have more arms and men when we attacked these areas.

3. Before joining the AUC in 1996, I was in the Colombian Army. I, like

many members of the AUC whom I know, entered the AUC immediately after finishing my time in the army. There was an open door between the two organizations. In my capacity as retired military and as commander of the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front, I had encounters with active members of the army. On many occasions, they would let us act freely, since we were fighting the guerrilla, who was their enemy as well. During my operations with the AUC, I frequently found army officials who would allow us to

continue our operations and who frequently collaborated with us. On one occasion, which resulted in the death of Daniel N, I was captured by the police and then freed.

4. I am currently detained in La Modelo Jail in Barranquilla, Colombia. I am giving these declarations because, as I have said, I have been detained since July 19, 2000 and I have participated in the Justice and Peace process, where I will continue to provide testimony about the crimes in which I have participated or those about which I have knowledge. I know clearly that my assertions go against my own personal interest, as I am confessing to having committed and having knowledge of very serious crimes, including murder. I recognize that making these declarations might subject me to even more time behind bars. Additionally, there is no doubt that through this act, I am exposing myself to great risk by linking very powerful people to these crimes who, without the least bit of doubt, will try to silence me, or kill me. Nonetheless, I expect to remain in prison for a long time, and the only thing I can do for my legacy, for my family, is attempt to make amends for what I did, relieve my soul, by confessing my crimes so that the people whom I have hurt will be able to learn the truth of what happened and move forward with their lives.

5. My area of operation included the coal mine in La Loma, in the municipality

of El Paso, that the Drummond company operates. My area of operation also included part of Drummond’s railroad line. Even though this rail line begins in La Loma and ends in the municipality of Ciénaga in the department of Magdalena, we had custody up to the municipality of Bosconia. But I can guarantee that DRUMMOND paid all of the Fronts that had a presence in the zone through which the rail line passed. In the meeting with Araujo and “Jorge 40”, a payment was arranged for the Northern Block and another to all of the Fronts that would be in charge of providing security for the transport of coal. Drummond paid all of the Northern Block and from the sum that was paid to the Northern Block, a percentage went to each Front that had a presence in the area through which the rail line passed. See Exhibit A.

6. FARC guerrillas were present in the area where Drummond operated. In September 1997, two occasions in 1998, and once in 1999, the Drummond railroad line was attacked by the FARC with dynamite, causing considerable damage. See Exhibit B.

7. As a result of these attacks, the Manager of Community Relations of the

Drummond company in Cesar, Mr. Alfredo Araujo Castro, convened a meeting with the Northern Block of the AUC. The meeting was held shortly after the explosion in November 1999. We met in a town called La Mesa, which is located 20 km more or less outside of Valledupar. “Jorge 40” and I attended representing the AUC. He came accompanied by a 15 bodyguards and I came with 30 men under my command, including alias “Kevin”; “Cortico”; “Pelo de Puya”; “El Enano”; “Pirulo”; “Cachaco”; and my second-in-command alias “Guerrero.” Alfredo Araujo, alongside many bodyguards, was there representing Drummond. Although I was present and I could hear perfectly all that was said, virtually the entire conversation was between Araujo and “40.”

8. Alfredo Araujo and “Jorge 40” are childhood friends and they grew up

together since their families are among the most powerful in Valledupar economically and politically. The relationship between the Araujo family and “Jorge 40” is so public that three members of this family – Alfredo’s cousin, Hernando Molina Araujo (former governor of Cesar), his other cousin Álvaro Araujo Castro (former Senator of the Republic), and his uncle Álvaro Araujo Noguera (former Minister of Agriculture) – are in jail as a result of their connections with paramilitaries in the Northern Block.

9. At the November 1999 meeting, Araujo said that that he wanted to get the

AUC to provide security for Drummond and to drive the FARC from the area. He said that paying the AUC was something that was already being considered by Drummond managers. Araujo told us that the AUC had to attack the railroad line and make it appear that the FARC’s 41st Front had attacked the railroad line once again. Araujo said that this would be sufficient to make Drummond speed up the payments to the AUC, which were already under discussion by the executives in the United States.

Additionally, this would help turn the community against the FARC. We agreed on this plan.

10. “Jorge 40,” Araujo, and I specifically discussed the security plan for the

railroad line after the attacks carried out in 1999 by the guerrilla. They needed me in that meeting because I was commander of the area. In order to comply with the purpose of subduing the guerrillas and providing security to Drummond in its mine and railroad line, my Front needed 200 men that were armed, equipped, and trained; with only 40 men under my command, with few arms, we could not provide any sort of effective service to Drummond. In order to increase the number of men, arms, and technology, we needed substantial funding to increase our war power. Araujo was in agreement; he said the following words to us: “Drummond is willing to provide a sum of money so that your group can strengthen itself with men and arms, as long as you commit to providing security to the railroad line and the coal operations in the mine.”

11. By “security” I mean that we were told by Araujo that the areas along the

Drummond rail line that had a FARC presence had to be attacked and pacified. We all understood this. We were not talking about physical protection of property. We were talking about doing what the AUC was created to do and that is to destroy the FARC and its supporters. Sometimes people from Drummond used words like “security” and we did too – it was a euphemism for going after the FARC and its supporters. We also used “operation” as a way to say we were going to attack a FARC area. The Colombian army provided the stationary guards for Drummond’s property. The AUC’s role was to hunt and destroy the FARC and its sympathizers.

12. “Jorge 40” put me in charge, in compliance with the agreement with Araujo, of carrying out the attack against the railroad line used for the transport of coal. I personally carried out the dynamite operation in April 2000 along with alias “Pirulo,” under the protection of many of my men, in El Paso, the area of influence of the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front. Later, according to our plan with Araujo, we distributed a pamphlet in the town of Loma de Potrerillo, in the municipality of Chiriguaná, in which we attributed the

attacks to the FARC’s 41st Front. One month later, in May 2000, we assassinated five people – William Enrique Ríos Villazon, Ángel María Ospina, Ciro Alfonso Guerrero Rueda, Oscar Enrique Yance Atencio, and Edilson Julio Galvis – near Casacará, Becerril (Cesar), who we identified as being collaborators with the FARC guerrilla who supposedly had been the authors of the attack. In line with what we had agreed to with Araujo, the aforementioned demonstrated the effectiveness of the AUC in protection of the railroad line.

13. Shortly after the attack, in that same month of April 2000, the first large payment from Drummond was received. While in the meeting it had been decided that “Jorge 40” would personally receive the money, he decided to put alias “Amín” in charge of receiving the money and later turning it over to him. “Amín” and I, along with many of my men, waited for the Drummond company employees. I knew they were from Drummond because they came from inside the mining facilities that were being operated by Drummond. From inside the mine came two pick-up trucks, one red Hilux in which two people rode. This car carried the money that was delivered to us. That car was accompanied by a car whose body was made of wood in which one or two people rode. They were to hand over the money in the back part of the mine, on the outskirts of the town of Las Palmitas. There, they gave us three large boxes filled with dollars, which were then taken directly to “Jorge 40.” I am not sure as to the amount of money, because due to organizational reasons of the Northern Block, this was a task of the “financiers,” that is, the people who managed the funds, whereas my tasks were exclusively of military nature. At the moment of receiving the boxes, “Amín” opened them and we were able to verify that they were full of dollars. Nonetheless, the only people who know exactly how much money was there are Alfredo Araujo, “Jorge 40,” and alias “Don Luis.” “Don Luis” is a man of 1.75 meters in height and of light skin complexion; he had white hair and thick eyebrows. He was the general financier of the Northern Block of the AUC.

14. What I can say with certainty is that “Jorge 40” told me, after this operation,

that with this money we were going to recruit, arm, and equip 200 men for

the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front. The guns, the support weapons, and the rest of the equipment for the 200 men were bought directly by “Jorge 40” with the money received from Drummond. I know that Carlos Castaño sold the arms to “40,” but this was an agreement made between “40” and Castaño, and therefore I do not know the details of it. From that day on, the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front, under my command, was armed and had an important presence around the facilities of Drummond’s mining operations and all along the Drummond railroad line, where we carried out our work of security, intelligence, and massacres in order to clean the railroad corridor. Drummond was the principal source of funding for the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front and one of the principal funders of the Northern Block.

15. After Araujo made the initial payment for Drummond, monthly payments

were arranged, but I do not know the amount of said monthly payments because, as I have already said, financial information did not pass through my hands. I was captured on July 19, 2000, and until that moment had been commander of the Juan Andrés Álvarez Front. Nonetheless, since the first payment by Drummond in 2000 until the day of my capture, numerous operations were carried out under my command that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people as part of our task to provide security to the investments of the multinational Drummond.

16. Again, by this I mean that we secured the towns along the rail line by

executing FARC guerillas and their supporters and sympathizers. I am able to remember some of these, such as: Jhon Jairo Picón Pérez on April 11, 2000 in Codazzi; Joel Pinzón Aguirre on February 5, 2000 in Codazzi; Dioner Ramón Guerrero Sánchez on February 2, 2000 in Codazzi; Cecilia Mercedes Vivero Rodríguez on February 11, 2000 in Codazzi; Heriberto León Cadena, Luis Fernando Hidalgo Hidalgo, José Manuel Padilla Guerrero, Miguel Enrique Canchila Aparicio, Alfonso Castro León, Oscar Emilio Ardila Lemus, and Félix María Robles, all of whom I assassinated on January 18, 2000 in the township of Estados Unidos, Becerril; Eulises Coronado Vidales, Eulises Coronado García, Luz Aída Marin Pertuz, Humberto Marin Polo, Darwin Salcedo Rangel, Néstor Antonio Ortega Marin, Ernesto Ortega Iturriales, Rosa Elvira Rojas Quintero, Libardo

Ortega Duran, Eusebio Manuel Acuña Arrieta, and José Gregor, all of whom I assassinated on January 28, 2000 in Santa Cecilia (El Paso); Israel Roca Martínez, Edilberto Linares Correa, Mario Abel Anillo Trocha, Danilo Javier Carrera Aguancha, Hugo Alberto Quintero Solano, Carlos Arturo Ibarra Bernal, and Jaime Elías Barros Ovalle, all of whom I assassinated on March 9, 2000 in the township of Minguillo, La Paz; Alcides Tiburcio Rivera Palencia on March 5, 2000 in Codazzi; and Daniel David Ariza Contreras on May 12, 2000 in Codazzi. In addition to the physical elimination of the enemies of our sponsors such as Drummond, we sought to carry out massive displacements of people in order to better control our area of operation. After my capture, I knew that the military operations were continuing because of the news brought to me by my colleagues who were active combatants of the Front.

17. There were so many deaths attributed to my Front that I am unable to

remember the names of each victim, nor the manner in which they were executed. Nevertheless, I remember a few, such as the death of a man in 2000 named Daniel who was detained between the police barracks and a bus company that there is in La Loma. He was a fat man with eyeglasses. Those there included alias “Cortico,” “Guerrero,” “Kevin,” and “Guajiro,” and he was assassinated near the Platanal bridge. This death was specifically requested by Araujo, who told us that the man was a guerrilla and was becoming a problem for the company. We carried out the order because he was paying us for our services.

18. I have reviewed the facts of what happened to those who were killed as

described in Plaintiffs’ Complaint that was filed on May 19, 2009. While many of those events occurred after I was captured by police on July 19, 2000 and taken out of service with the AUC, the places that are described are areas that were FARC strongholds and that we had targeted for attack. The violent acts that are described are typical of what we in the AUC did to ensure that villagers would not provide any form of support to the FARC. While I was commander of the Juan Andres Alvarez Front we infiltrated the communities where the FARC had a presence, identified persons we suspected of being guerillas and then hunted them down and killed them. We

used brutal methods to ensure that the survivors would be clear that if they assisted the FARC in any way, a brutal death would be their fate. We did not kill anyone unless they were a military target or were killed as part of one of our operations designed to defeat the FARC. Drummond’s support for our Front and the Northern Block did not change our military targets or methods, but did prioritize the order and timing of the areas we targeted, and of course, allowed us to be more effective because Drummond’s funds provided us with more men, arms and supplies. Based on Drummond’s direction to us, mainly provided through Alfredo Araujo, we prioritized our operations to have a major focus on the towns along Drummond’s rail line where we had information that the FARC was operating or had supporters. Araujo arranged for Drummond to support us so that the AUC could eliminate the FARC in the region.

19. For greater accuracy of my criminal actions, all of the acts I committed have been registered in the testimonies that I have provided to the Justice and Peace Prosecutor of Colombia.

20. My participation as part of the Drummond security force was ongoing until the day I was captured by the police on July 19, 2000, in the municipality of Valencia, Córdoba, where I had arrived to go into hiding after having killed seven investigators from the CTI of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Juan Andrés Álvarez Front was left under the command of alias “Tolemaida,” who responds to the name of Oscar Ospino Pacheco.

Executed this 3rd day of December, 2009 in La Modelo Jail, Barranquilla, Colombia [signature] [fingerprint] ________________________ Jhon Jairo Esquivel Cuadrado

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