Twenty-five years after the New Venice massacre, There have been three enforceable convictions of the jurisdiction of Justice and Peace, created to attend to paramilitary processes, after the end of the demobilization of the Self-Defense Forces, in 2006.
For the massacre of the 40 inhabitants of the swamp, the first sentence was issued on November 22, 2014. It was a decision of the Justice and Peace Chamber of the Superior Court of Bogotá, with presentation by Judge Lester María González Romero.
In this ruling, the former head of the Self-Defense Forces, Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, “for their responsibility in the events.”
The second ruling is from November 29, 2021. In this ruling, the Justice and Peace Knowledge Chamber of the Superior Court of Barranquilla, with presentation by the magistrate José Haxel De la Pava Marulandacondemned the postulate Luis Fernando Meza Matta for his responsibility in the massacre.
Finally, on February 6, 2023, the Justice and Peace Knowledge Room of the Superior Court of Barranquillawith a presentation by the then Judge Gustavo Aurelio Roa Avendañocondemned several members of the extinct Pivijay front or Tomás Guillén of the Northern Block of the AUC, for their responsibility in the events.
Former paramilitaries appear on the list of those convicted Javier Sánchez Arce, Edmundo De Jesús Guillén Hernández, Alberto Enrique Martínez Macea, Adriano de Jesús Torres Hernández, Richard Manuel Fabra Romero, Sócrates Cruz Samper Vargas.
The Prosecutor’s Office informed Ground Zero what “Currently, the Circuit Criminal Court with functions of executing sentences for the Justice and Peace Chamber of the national territory, monitors compliance with the sentences and obligations imposed on the convicted candidates.”
In the course of the Justice and Peace investigations, 40 homicides were recognized in the New Venice massacre. “In that sense, the 31st Prosecutor’s Office delegated by the Directorate of Transitional Justice has presented a total of (1,355) victims (direct and indirect) related to the Nueva Venecia massacre.”
