The United States has prohibited the entry into the country of retired Colombian Army General Jesús Armando Arias Cabrales, who was involved in the disappearance of six people during the operation to regain control of the Palace of Justice, taken in November 1985 by the now disappeared guerrilla M-19.
The US State Department has indicated that Arias Cabrales participated “in a serious violation of Human Rights” during those events, which occurred in Bogotá and for which he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in Colombia.
In addition to Arias Cabrales, his wife Martha Paulina Isaza de Arias and his children Francisco Armando Arias Isaza and Martha Lucia Arias Isaza have been included on the United States ‘blacklist’.
“The United States strongly supports Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement and joins the Colombian people in commemorating its seventh anniversary. The United States congratulates Colombia on this anniversary and we value its continued achievements to date,” the Department’s statement said. of State.
The military operation left a hundred dead, including a dozen Supreme Court judges, as well as six guerrillas missing. In May 2020, he was released on conditional release after submitting to the Special Peace Jurisdiction (JEP), an organization from which he was expelled in August for not collaborating.
The JEP is the special court that emerged after the Havana peace agreements to judge those who participated – guerrillas, members of the public force and third-party civilian collaborators – in the Colombian internal conflict.
