THE GUARDIAN [London]
Monday, 1 November 1999
 

Did he really do it?
Ask grieving parents A Colombian's confession to 140 child murders leaves many doubts 

By Martin Hodgson

PEREIRA, Colombia -- A small tin placard nailed to a palm tree is the only memorial to Juan David Marin, one of 36 children whose remains were found here last year.

The discovery triggered Colombia's biggest murder investigation, reaching throughout the country and neighbouring Ecuador as investigators compared more than a hundred cases of missing children.

Their efforts paid off last week when a 42-year-old Pereira man confessed to abducting and killing 140 children aged between eight and 16.

In Pereira the council has built a park in the litter-strewn gully where 12 bodies were found last November. Life-sized figures of children at play are painted on the rocks above.

'The answer to what happened to the children of Pereira depends on you," reads a painted sign. But many local people feel that questions remain unanswered. A year after the bodies were found, only four have been identified. On most of the memorial trees the nameplates are stamped with a line of question marks.

Officials say that Luis Alfredo Garavito, an unemployed drifter with a history of sex offences, confessed after they presented him with overwhelming evidence linking him to the crimes.

The victims, mostly boys, were found with their hands tied and their throats cut. Some showed signs of rape and torture.

'There is no precedent in Colombian legal history. We are giving a response to expectations of the victims' parents and the country," the chief state investigator, Pablo Elias Gonzalez, said.

But many are sceptical. 'Here in Colombia they can't find the murderer when national figures get killed: how did they succeed in this case?" said Amanda Guzman, whose 14-year-old adopted son Luis Fernando disappeared in 1996 on his way home from school.

An estimated 97% of crimes go unpunished in Colombia, but in the face of pressure for an arrest the investigators may have rushed to blame Mr Gar avito for unsolved crimes, the local human rights ombudsman, Uberney Marin, said. 'This is not the work of one person, but a whole criminal enterprise. Garavito is just one link in a chain of psychopaths."

The federal authorities allege that since 1994 Mr Garavito has travelled to more than 60 towns in Colombia and Ecuador in search of victims. Last year, however, an other local man, Pedro Pablo Ramirez, confessed to at least five of the murders, and several others are still facing charges.

Relatives of Pereira's missing children are angry that the killing has gone unchecked for so long. Diana Velez complained that the police showed little interest when her nephew Juan David disappeared.

'If we were rich, they would have looked everywhere for him, but because we're poor, they weren't bothered."

Juan David, 11, and his cousin Jeison Velez, 12, went out to sell newspapers one Sunday morning in October last year, and have never returned.

Many of the victims were child street vendors from the slum neighbourhoods on the hillsides above this bustling provincial town. Thousands of children work in unregulated businesses, selling everything from chewing gum to legal textbooks on street corners.

'The poor are always more exposed to abuse, because they are this country's pariahs," Mr Marin said.

'The uncertainty is very cruel. People say we should kill him. I say we should get the truth from him,' said Mrs Guzman. 
 

Back to the index