Colombia says soldiers killed antidrug police

BOGOTÁ -- Suspicions that a Colombian military unit assassinated a US-trained, elite antinarcotics team at the bidding of the drug mafia two weeks ago have proven true, officials say, in a case that has badly shaken public confidence in the military.

On May 22, 10 of the country's most successful antidrug police were killed by a military platoon in the outskirts of Jamundí, an area under the influence of narco-traffickers 195 miles southwest of the capital, near Cali.

Two military officers and six soldiers were arrested Thursday on the basis of incriminating cellphone text messages and crime-scene evidence that investigators say prove the eight men planned the killings. The suspects insist the shootings were a ``friendly fire" mistake.

``This was not a mistake, this was a crime; this was a deliberate decision, a criminal decision," Attorney General Mario Iguarán said last week . ``They were doing the bidding of a drug trafficker."

Authorities are investigating bank accounts allegedly containing $44,000 belonging to Army Colonel Bayron Carvajal, the most senior officer arrested, as well as his alleged links to Omar García Varela, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo. Varela is accused of being right-hand man of drug boss Diego Montoya, one of the United States' 10 most-wanted narco-traffickers, who is believed to control properties and drug laboratories near the site of fatal attack. The United States has offered $5 million for information leading to Montoya's capture.

Questions remain in the Jamundí case about the extent of alleged collusion with drug traffickers within the armed forces, and how high up it may go. The arrests came days after the US State Department certified Colombia's human rights record, ensuring the flow of most US military aid to this country. Last year, Congress withheld some military assistance on worries that the Colombian government, which has waged a nearly decade-long campaign against drug corruption, was ignoring extrajudicial killings or cooperation between the military and right-wing death squads.

The Jamundí case has sparked a national outcry that has reached up to President Álvaro Uribe, but Uribe on Friday said he was not ready to oust generals to hold them responsible for the killings. The best way to restore military credibility, he said, would be to clarify events and impose sanctions on the guilty.

Among the most damning evidence against the arrested soldiers are text messages allegedly sent by Carvajal on the day of the killing to the lieutenant and sergeant in charge of the platoon.

``Pull back the ambush. . . . Everything is set for tonight," read one message leaked by authorities to El Tiempo and the newsmagazine Semana.

That afternoon, Carvajal sent another message, the media reported: ``Get ready for the group to come with the chicken so you can get it."

``Chicken" was the nickname of civilian informant Luis Eduardo Betancur, who was leading police to a suspected 440-pound stash of cocaine. Betancur was also a registered informant of Carvajal, authorities say. He was found shot in the neck, with his balaclava removed, investigators say.

Eight of the 10 police killed were shot in the back, and ``the crime scene was contaminated before investigators arrived," said an investigative official yesterday who spoke on condition of anonymity. Investigators suspect soldiers may have fired shots from the police officers' weapons after they died, in an effort to make it look like there was a confrontation, El Tiempo reported.

Fewer than half of the soldiers in the 28-man platoon fired at the police. Witnesses interviewed by telephone from Jamundí say the police identified themselves during the attack and begged the soldiers not to shoot.

More than half of the shots fired originated from a military sniper who was hidden from view, said an investigative official.

When colleagues of the slain police arrived at the scene to investigate, another text message allegedly demanded to know why they had been allowed to pass a military roadblock.

The police unit had been trained by the Drug Enforcement Administration and was responsible for more than 200 arrests of drug traffickers, including 23 wanted for extradition to the United States.