The Attorney General's Office reported that four members of the Eastern Front of the National Liberation Army (ELN) were convicted on Monday. The ex-combatants accepted the charges for which they were prosecuted.
The four men were prosecuted for an attack they carried out on the parking lot of the Metropolitan Police of Tunja, Boyacá, on October 22, 2018. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the convicts installed four explosive devices, which triggered the incineration of five vehicles and damaged 12 more. “In the same place another explosive was found that was detonated in a controlled manner,” added the investigating body.
In addition, Jefferson Ricardo Román Bolívar, a patrolman who provided surveillance service in the parking lot, died in the attack and was shot at with a firearm.
“The investigations made it possible to establish that the convicted were mobilizing on three motorcycles, followed by a vehicle that was waiting for them in the La Granja neighborhood, north of Tunja, to flee to Bogotá,” the document delivered by the Prosecutor's Office reads.
The Single Criminal Court of the Tunja Specialized Circuit established a 30-year prison sentence for William Yesid Ramírez Castro, José Alirio Bautista Torres and Jaime Alexander Cuadros Armado. Meanwhile, member Sobeida Parra Gamba received a 16-year sentence.
The judge in the case also pointed out that, in addition to prison time, men must pay a fine of more than 10 billion pesos, while that of women is equivalent to more than 8 billion pesos.
The ex-combatants accepted responsibility for the crimes of: aggravated homicide, aggravated terrorism, concert to commit a crime; manufacturing, trafficking and carrying of weapons or ammunition for restricted use by the armed forces; manufacturing, trafficking or carrying possession of firearms, accessories, parts or ammunition; and damage to aggravated alien good.
ELN delivers proof of survival of soldier Yeison Martínez
This Monday also broke another news that involves the outlaw group. Almost five months after his abduction, the ELN provided video proof that professional soldier Yeison Martínez Tapia is still alive.
“From the moment I was detained, I have not received any physical or verbal abuse. I have been in good health, I have had a good diet. I had a good rest,” Private Martinez said in the video. The soldier also sent a message to his family in which he says he needs his children, his parents and his wife: “Don't worry about me, we'll be together soon,” he added.
The soldier was kidnapped by armed men in the village of Palmeras del Mirador, rural area of Tibú. Preliminary versions indicate that the event occurred around 11:00 a.m. on November 3, 2021, when Martínez Tapia, in the company of fellow military officer Walter Orjuela Pineda, was delivering drinking water in a DIW - 807 plate truck. At that time, armed subjects arrived and intercepted them.
According to Orjuela Pineda, his partner was in the cabin of the truck and the criminals forced him out. Faced with the impossibility of acting, he slipped through the bushes and thus managed to avoid being kidnapped. Then, the subversives fled with Private Martínez Tapias to the south, while Orjuela Pineda got back on the tanker and drove for more than three kilometers to the nearest Military Command Post (PMM), where he submitted the report of his companion's kidnapping.
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