The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation against the renowned former cyclist Luis ‘Lucho’ Herrera, champion of the Vuelta a España in 1987, and his brother Rafael, for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of four people more than two decades ago in Fusagasugá, Cundinamarca, the hometown of the brothers. The decision was made by a prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Human Rights Violations, who is investigating the Herrera brothers as possible responsible parties for the disappearance of the four people in the rural area of Fusagasugá on October 23, 2002, according to an official statement. The investigation suggests that ‘Lucho’ and Rafael Herrera would have contacted members of the extinct Autodefensas Campesinas del Casanare, which operated in the Sumapaz region between 2002 and 2003, to kidnap a group of people who lived near the Herrera family’s properties. The case came to light in April of last year when Judge María del Pilar Bocarejo asked the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the alleged participation of the former cyclist in the forced disappearance of four neighbors, with the collaboration of paramilitary groups. It is presumed that the former cyclist sought protection from paramilitary groups after being kidnapped by the FARC in the year 2000.
Accusations of paramilitaries
In a hearing last year, the judge explained that, in a trial against the ex-paramilitary Luis Fernando Gómez Flórez, convicted of the disappearance of the four people, he directly accused ‘Lucho’ Herrera in a statement on October 11, 2022. According to the version of Gómez, alias Ojitos, and another ex-paramilitary named Óscar Andrés Huertas, alias Menudencias, both received the order from Martín Llanos, leader of the Autodefensas Campesinas del Casanare, to fulfill a commission from Herrera to make the neighbors disappear, supposedly with the aim of taking their lands.
