IACHR will issue first report on kidnapping next week

Ecuadornews:

Monday, March 26 09:30. That was the moment in which the military registered Javier Ortega, Paul Rivas and Efraín Segarra in their checkpoint and allowed their passage to Mataje. Seven months later, the relatives of the newspaper team of this newspaper say that they only have hope in the investigation of the Special Monitoring Team of the IACHR, which is trying to clarify this case.

In November the third and last visit of the researchers to Quito will take place. But next week will be issued a first evaluation of the work done to date. During the July visit, the Special Rapporteur of the IACHR for Freedom of Expression, Édison Lanza, assured that when plagiarism occurred, the situation on the border was very serious and the level of risk was extreme.

After making all visits, it is expected that the final report will be known in December. Before, the relatives will participate in one of the public hearings of the IACHR. These will take place in Washington from December 3 to 7.

At this moment, the relatives of the journalistic team review what day they will participate. They hope that in that instance the truth will be known. In Ecuador, the case is still under reserve. In Colombia, inquiries are more advanced. A team was formed, the agents drew a timeline and identified possible perpetrators.

For the triple kidnapping, that country captured alias ‘Otto’, ‘Cherry’, ‘Reinel’ and ‘Roberto’. After the arrest of the latter (August 7), the Colombian Ministry of Defense said that the team was taken to Colombia “by deception.”

On July 23, the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office already identified ‘Roberto’ and ‘Cristian’ as the militiamen who retained the press team. And he said that alias ‘Cherry’, as a member of the Commission of Kidnappings of the former guerrillas, ordered the capture of the three professionals and their transfer to Colombian territory.

In Colombia, alias ‘Macri’ is also captured for the murder of the three.

‘The IACHR is hope’

Galo Ortega Father of Javier Ortega

From the Government I have no hope, because there are no results of the investigation. But with what the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights does, the possibility remains of reaching the truth. Look, we attended the appointments in the Office of the Prosecutor. But what they do there is wash their hands.

The authorities that are called to those meetings have not attended and we make an important effort to be there. But they have not done it. Now, all we have left is for everything that happened on the northern border in those days to come to light.

‘We hope agility’

Ricardo Rivas Brother of Paúl Rivas

There has not been an exhaustive investigation by the authorities. It is regrettable to see how the Office of the Prosecutor does not give way and hinders the processes of inquiry. The relatives of the victims have requested documents and appearances from authorities that are key to the investigation.

For example, how is it possible that the ex-commander of the Police, Ramiro Mantilla, was not summoned to appear? We have made requests for appearances since May and have been ignored. Now we expect results.

‘There are more questions’

Cristian Segarra Son of Efraín Segarra

The new journalistic investigations confirm that there was a mishandling of kidnapping. This leaves us more questions than before. There are things that until now are not clear. For example, where was the truck in reality? We are waiting these days for the preliminary report of the IACHR to know what the investigation is throwing and to put a little more light on this issue and finally be able to know the truth. As a family we had to be part of the investigations, we had to swallow the pain to withstand all the inconsistencies. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/cidh-emitira-primer-informe-periodistas.html