Diego Fernando Murillo, alias ‘don Berna’, was set to be extradited on May 13th 2008 to the United States. One month earlier from the public gallery in the courthouse in Medellín, María Hologuín had asked him to tell her where her son Carlos Emilio Torres had been buried. Carlos disappeared on November 29th 2002 in district 13 during Operation Orión.

This mother gave ‘don Berna’ a photo of her son and reminded him that Carlos was 28 at the time of his disapperance and that he worked in the Lindala textile factory. ‘Don Berna’ looked at the photo and told her: ‘in our next meeting I will give you the information you want, I need to consult with others in the group because I am not entirely sure what it is you are talking about’. She beseeched him to have pity saying that for five years she has been hoping to hear something of her son. Her wait is not yet over, ‘don Berna’ has said nothing since and there is little hope that he will do so. ‘I want them to return his body to me, this is the best form of redress a mother can hope for’ said Maria, ‘all the issues of administration are only secondary’.

There are 32,000 individuals in the same situation, all of whom are registered on the list of victims in Medellín and all of whom are asking for reparation from the ex-paramilitary leader. Among these 17,156 say that initially their loved ones fell into the hands of the group known as Metro led by Carlos García alias ‘Doblecero’ and that they were then handed over to ‘don Berna’. 10,214 others accuse the group Cacique Nutibara, 3,630 accuse the group Héros de Granada and 783 accuse the group Héros de Tolová.

According to the Medellín District Attorney, the ex-paramilitary ‘don Berna’ and his men are responsible for 417 disappearances, 9,290 murders and 199 cases of forced displacement of people including the expropriation of several buildings as well as cases of extortion and kidnapping. But ‘don Berna’ has only given the location of two mass graves and admitted to thirteen crimes consisting of nine disappearances and murders. As for the rest there are no traces, no leads… nothing. Even more disturbing is the fact that on June 23rd in New York ‘don Berna’ declared ‘in the current situation it is going to be almost impossible to continue to give information on the location of mass graves where most of the victims are buried’. The ex-paramilitary leader is not living up to his promise to co-operate with Justice and Peace. ‘He talks, he talks…, and in the end he concludes by saying that it was a time of war and that it was to be expected that innocent people should die as a result’, explains Fernando, the father of one of the missing. ‘He has not given us one bit of information or the least idea of my son’s whereabouts’.

The investigators from Justice and Peace are facing a complex situation because in the absence of ‘don Berna’, there is not a single commander of the group who worked under him who could give them a lead regarding his crimes. Daniel Mejía, ‘Danellito’ who was his successor has since disappeared. Carlos Aguilar, ‘Rogelio’ next in the chain of command was handed over to the DEA (secret service) last year and he is co-operating with the authorities in their work on drug trafficking. As for ‘Job’, who met the highest ranking civil servants in Nariňo Palace (the presidential palace) on April 23rd last year, he was assassinated three months later.

According to Albiero Chavarro, treasurer of Justice and Peace, it has not been possible to locate the mass graves around Medellín, and furthermore the identity of those responsible for the murders is still not known. The Reparation Fund has not been given the 122 properties owned by ‘don Berna’ valued at 25,000 million pesos, which his lawyer said would be handed over. These assets are now the property of dummy companies and front men and can not be retrieved. In addition, no inventory of the transport companies, betting shops and lottery agencies owned by the ex-paramilitary exists. ‘In spite of the efforts of the Attorney General, at the moment it remains impossible to hand over the remains of the disappeared’ explains Chavarro. ‘Before his extradition Diego Fernando Murillo gave very little by way of answers to the questions asked by the victims.

‘Don Berna’ was sentenced to 31 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking, but in Colombia his victims are still waiting for the truth. ‘My mother Ana Lilia Roldàn and my brother Everardo disappeared on the orders of ‘don Berna’, and now I am told that I should arrange a symbolic funeral because it is difficult to find the bodies’, says Ana, I don’t accept this, I want the truth’. But as feared by those who criticised the extradition of ex-paramilitaries and as declared by their leader Salvatore Mancuso, all signs indicate that ‘the truth has also been extradited along with them’.