Bogota - A retired Colombian general was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday for his involvement in a massacre by ultra-rightist paramilitaries. A Bogota court ruled that Jaime Uscategui, then-commander of the 8th brigade based in the town of Villavicencio in the province of Meta, was complicit in the 1997 massacre in which some 49 civilians were murdered by paramilitaries.
In July 1997, more than 100 heavily armed members of a rightist paramilitary group, which had been outlawed earlier, entered the village of Mapiripan. In a five-day killing spree they tortured and murdered at least 20 civilians, with some reports putting the death toll as high as 49.
The military did not stop the massacre or stop the paramilitaries at one of many checkpoints on their way to and from the village.
Uscategui abandoned the people to their fate, the court ruled, overturning an earlier acquittal. The judges ordered the former general's arrest.
Uscategui maintained his innocence. He had documents to prove that he had not been responsible for Mapiripan at that time, he told journalists.
