Peru: Sosa Saavedra Confesses

I was going to add this to the news headlines post, but on reflection I thought it was worthy of a translation.

Sosa Saavedra Confesses to Another Murder by the Colina Group

He says he was just following orders.

Jesus Sosa Saavedra, known as 'Kerosene' among the army's intelligence agents for his habit of using the fuel to make his victims disappear, revealed another murder committed by the Colina Group yesterday.

"Nobody remembers now, but in Huaca, in El Santa, we killed another person, a terrorist criminal, who nobody has ever come forward to claim", confessed Sosa to the judges of the Special Anticorruption Court.

He added that he did not remember the identity of the victim. "He was armed, and in the struggle to capture him, he died and we left him there", he stated.

Sosa also acknowledged his participation in the murders at Barrios Altos, of the journalist Pedro Yauri, and of 11 peasants in El Santa. He had already admitted his part in the Cantuta massacre.

The ex-intelligence agent said that he could help authorities to find the bodies of Pedro Yauri and the El Santa victims, but he did not remember exactly where they were buried.

He stated that the El Santa operation was planned after a meeting with Martin Rivas at Army Headquarters and a meeting with a businessman in Miraflores, Lima.

At another time, Sosa Saavedra affirmed that the Colina Group was an organised Army detachment and not a band of murderers. "We weren't together because we wanted to be, we were acting as soldiers of the Army under superior orders, where the commanding officer decided who needed to be eliminated", confirmed 'Kerosene'.

Sosa made these declarations in the course of the trial of the Colina Group for the murders of Barrios Altos, El Santa, and of Pedro Yauri. Although he says he is telling the truth, his testimony differs in some details from that of other Colina agents.

Original article: Sosa Saavedra confiesa otro asesinato del destacemento Colina (La Republica)