| Los Maniceros massacre | |
| Location: | Táchira, Venezuela |
| Type: | Kidnapping and murder |
| Fatalities: | 11 |
| Injuries: | 1 |
The Los Maniceros massacre was the 2009 kidnapping in Colombia of twelve members of a Colombian amateur association football team Los Maniceros (The Peanut Men), eleven of whom were later murdered. The dead were aged between 17 and 38.
A single survivor, 19-year-old Manuel Cortez, sustained a bullet wound through his neck. The eleven bodies were discovered in several locations across the state of Táchira in Venezuela, according to Venezuela's Vice President Ramón Carrizales.[1] [2] The kidnapped men were mostly Colombian; one was Peruvian and one Venezuelan.[3] [4]
Venezuela was on high alert following the incident,[5] with troops in the area ordered to "act forcefully" against any armed Colombian group.[6]
The men, nutsellers by trade, were kidnapped and thrown into vans on 11 October 2009 in La Tala, Táchira, where they had come for a football match.[3] [2] The kidnappers were disguised in black clothing and called the men's names before seizing them from a field on which they had been playing football.[5] Their bodies were discovered on 24 October 2009 with several bullet wounds.[7]
Manuel Cortez is the only survivor. Security was increased in fear for the safety of Cortez. A man was arrested after requesting to see him in the hospital and Cortez was quickly placed under guard at a separate military hospital. He said they were all chained in their necks to trees and had spent two weeks in this condition outdoors in the sun.[5]
The main suspect is the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN), with Cortez blaming the group for the massacre.[3] [7] He said they had been lured into the group's territory by its leader. A motive has not been uncovered.[8]
President Álvaro Uribe called it a "deplorable act".[9] He said the massacre was an example that showed "terrorism is international, that it has no borders".[5] He expressed his hope that authorities would "take those terrorists to jail".[5]
Vice President Ramón Carrizales linked the attack to Colombia's domestic troubles.[10] [11]
This murder is referenced in Red Dead Redemption 2.[12]