According to Miguel Ángel del Río Malo, defense lawyer for the family of Andrés Camilo Peláez, the forestry engineer who disappeared in San Andrés de Cuerquia in April 2022after more than 1,600 days of uncertainty, the truth was known of what happened to the 26-year-old young man.
By the way, in the last few hours, the authorities They captured and prosecuted the fifth person involved in the kidnapping and murder of Peláez in the North of Antioquia: alias ‘I Swear’an individual who would have participated in the events as a minor.
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Andrés Camilo Peláez Yepes disappeared from San Andrés de Cuerquia, Antioquia Photo:PRIVATE FILE
This is Juan Diego Echavarría Arango22 years old, who at the time of the events I was 17 years old.
Depending on the age that ‘Se Lo Juro’ was at the time he participated in the disappearance of engineer Peláez, Your judicial process will take place within the framework of the laws of childhood and adolescence.
‘Se Lo Juro’, member of ‘The Table’ and who, according to court records, would be linked to this organized criminal group since he was 11 years old, was linked to the process last Thursday from Santa Rosa de Osos prisonwhere he was held for the crimes of possession and trafficking of narcotics and abusive sexual intercourse.
Echavarría became the fifth captured of the case of forestry engineer Andrés Camilo Yepes, being the most recent to be prosecuted after the arrests in recent months of Willinton Ortiz, alias ‘Willy’; Juan Fernando Tobón Correa, alias ‘El Paisa’; Weimar Alexander Castillo, alias ‘300’ and Brayan Andrei Palacio Arango, alias ‘The Cape’, all members of ‘El Mesa’.
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Alias 300, alias El Paisa and alias Willy, captured for the disappearance of Camilo Peláez. Photo:THE TIME.
The thing is that The capture represented a temporary point to clarify the disappearance of the engineer who was in the municipality of Saint Andrew of Cuerquia for work reasons in the first days of April 2022.
As confirmed by lawyer Del Río Malo, ‘Se Lo Juro’ not only agreed to the charges against him, but “confessed the macabre forms of the crime“. In that sense, the defender confirmed that Andrés Camilo Peláez was murdered by the members of ‘El Mesa’.
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The disappearance of Andrés Camilo
In the first days of April 2022, Andrés Camilo Peláez, a forestry engineer by profession, traveled to the municipality of San Andrés de Cuerquiain the North of the department of Antioquia, within the framework of the development of their work functions for a contracting company of the Hidroituango project.
Camilo stayed in a hotel of the main park of the municipality that he already knew and where they knew him, because had stayed there several times in the past. So much so that I already had one Favorite room: 209.
In 2025, the manager of that hotel he told EL TIEMPO: “He arrived on Sunday, April 3, 2022 to stay there, he told me that he was going to stay until Friday, that is, five days. He arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon, entered the room, and around 9 pm he came out and told me he was going out to eat, but he didn’t come back. I stayed waiting all night and it didn’t arrive. “At around 7 in the morning I dialed my cell phone and the voicemail rang.”
In the most recent indictment hearings against the members of ‘El Mesa’ captured in July, the prosecutor in the case reconstructed the facts that surrounded Camilo’s disappearance.
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This is the last video record we have of Andrés Camilo. Photo:ELTIEMPO Archive
On Monday, April 4, 2022, in the municipality of San Andrés de Cuerquia, in the early morning hours, the forced disappearance of the engineer occurred Andrés Camilo Peláez, when was intercepted in the main park by approximately five people, among them, some individuals with the aliases of ‘El Paisa’, ‘300’, ‘El Willy’ and ‘El Cabo’, who have been identified as members of the GDO ‘El Mesa'”.
Along these lines, the prosecutor continued: “After hitting him, They put him in a vehicle which was driven by alias ‘300’. That same day, the engineer was seen at a residence located in the urban area; His hands were tied, with blood on his face and other parts of his body. That same day, the engineer was observed in the company of ‘El Paisa’ and ‘El Willy’ when they were heading towards the rural area of the municipality. From that moment until today his whereabouts are unknown“
Finally, the official of the accusing body noted: “The research has allowed us to establish that, prior to the kidnapping, the aliases ‘El Paisa’, ‘El Willy’ and ‘El Cabo’ They arranged and planned the kidnapping of the victim, for which they requested logistical support from third parties and carried out tracking and tracing activities.
Through the investigations carried out in the case, which was unblocked just a few months ago after the case was assigned to another investigator, It was established that Andrés Camilo was kidnapped after leaving the hotel to chat with an acquaintance.
Andres Camilo a street behind the church was intercepted of the municipality by the members of ‘El Mesa’. Then, was taken to a subject’s farm known by the alias ‘Cannibal’.
Subsequently, Peláez was transported back to the municipal area, to a house located a few meters from the central park of San Andrés de Cuerquia. In that house was held. presumably the result of an extortion of 10 million with which the members of ‘El Mesa’ intended to ‘balance the cash’ of one of the micro-trafficking plazas in the region.
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CTI teams raided and carried out forensic work in the home of San Andrés de Cuerquia Photo:Supplied.
Andres Camilo He was subjected to humiliation and torture that finally they took him to death.
After he died, those accused today They transported the body of Andrés Camilo near the San Andrés River in the jurisdiction of the Guayabal village and They buried him in a grave located a few meters from the body of water.
As it became known in recent days, after the case was unraveled and as the authorities approached the whereabouts of the engineer’s remains, the members of ‘El Mesa’, including alias ‘Se Lo Juro’, They dug up the remains and threw them to the flow of the river to remove any evidence.
NICOLAS TAMAYO ESCALANTE
Journalist from Nación, in Medellín.
