On February 18th 2000 happens what no one in El Salado could have thought of.

 

450 paramilitary forces surround the village closing in from all of its three entrance streets.

 

On the farms at the outskirts of El Salado they kill 18 people.

 

After four days of murder and torture 66 villagers are dead.

 

The paramilitary forces, using heavy trucks and two helicopters, retreat without being stopped by military forces.

The unspeakable

Even women & children

 

The mission of the paramilitary forces was to eradicate the village from the map.

 

NSA intelligence cables suggest the unthinkable.

 

The cable reads (click): "[Source] believes that the Army likely knew from intelligence reports that the paramilitaries were in the area, but left prior to the massacre."

 

Only 15 paramilitary fighters who were in El Salado were ever apprehended. US intelligence suggests (click) that the AUC are a"not actively persecuted paramilitary group because they see them as allies in the fight against the guerrillas, their common enemy."

 

An official and intensive investigation of the Colombian authorities denied all links between state forces and AUC.

 

For those who returned, one question stings: Why did the paramilitaries choose our pitch where the kids played football and the village celebrated?

 

For Neida, and many others, coming to terms with the horror that happened, needs that question answered.

 

"Were they simply on drugs, drunk of gore, or was there a deeper meaning to it all?"

 

But one thing, she says, is most important. "To show them they did not break us."

Cleaning up