A/HRC/7/39 page 8 in clarifying past events.16 Investigations have also been undertaken by the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Office against high-level civilian and military officials for alleged links with paramilitary groups and corruption. 13. Investigations into the storming of the Palace of Justice by the M-19 guerrilla group and its recovery by the army in 1986, and others related to the murders of members of the Unión Patriotica were reopened.17 The courts also handed down decisions against members of the security forces who perpetrated extrajudicial executions, as in the cases of the three trade unionists murdered in August 2004 at Caño Seco in Saravena, Arauca, and the farmer murdered in April 2004 in the village of La Hondita in El Peñol, Antioquia. In both cases the military patrols reported that the victims had been “shot in combat”, and the courts found that they were not. The Attorney General’s Office also ordered the detention of an army captain for the massacre of five adults and three children in San José de Apartadó, Antioquia, in February 2005. 14. At the international level, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights has ruled against the Colombian State, which accepted responsibility for the extrajudicial execution of an indigenous leader in the Nasa community, Cauca, by members of the armed forces in February 1988. In another case in which the State has also accepted responsibility, the same Court found that paramilitaries, with the collaboration of State agents, were guilty of the massacre of 12 officers of the judiciary18 in January 1989 in La Rochela, Santander. (a) Investigations into links between public officials and private enterprise with paramilitary groups 15. The Supreme Court of Justice opened investigations into the activities of 45 members of Congress for their alleged links with paramilitary groups. The accused are from 16 different departments; 18 of them have been imprisoned. Others under investigation include four former departmental governors and 18 former mayors. In November, the Procurator General dismissed the Director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) and barred him from holding public office for 18 years, for having collaborated with paramilitary groups and taken part in acts of corruption. All of these investigations have revealed the extent of paramilitary infiltration within the State through alliances with politicians and the support of certain private companies.19 The Supreme Court has given clear evidence of its strength and independence, which reinforces the possibility to further expose other paramilitary connections with members of public and private institutions. 16 See note 4 above. 17 This left-wing political party was created within the context of peace talks with FARC-EP in the late 1980s. Many of Unión Patriotica’s members and supporters have been murdered. 18 Several of the paramilitaries involved in this massacre are currently applying for legal benefits under Law 975/2005. 19 In that same line, a United States court convicted and fined Chiquita Brands International for having financed Colombian paramilitary groups between 1997 and 2004.