Colombia's peace court cites Duque's ministers to explain the killings of ex-guerrillas

The High Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, and the Minister of the Interior, Alicia Arango, two of the officials called to the JEP.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the court created after the peace agreements between the former FARC and the Colombian State to try the most serious crimes of the war, has summoned ministers and senior officials of the Government of Iván Duque and the Attorney General to explain the protection measures they have taken in the face of the incessant murders of demobilized ex-guerrillas.

"The JEP will verify compliance with the orders given by the Section of Absence of Recognition to state entities on the implementation of security guarantees for ex-combatants," the court indicated.

The situation of the ex-combatants is critical.

To date, 230 signatories of the peace agreement have been assassinated.

Not only the JEP but also the United Nations Peace Process Verification Mission have indicated that ex-guerrillas "continue to be murdered in alarming numbers."

The issue was addressed this week in the delivery of the quarterly report to the United Nations Security Council.

"Priority should be given to the provision of personnel and resources to the National Protection Unit so that it can process the accumulation of protection requests for ex-combatants that are pending," said the representative of the head of the mission, Carlos Ruiz. Massieu.

In a letter addressed to President Iván Duque, Ruiz Massieu urged the Government to "continue fighting against impunity for these crimes, including bringing the intellectual authors to justice."

The JEP's call to Duque's senior officials comes at a time when attacks against this transitional justice system by members of the ruling party, Centro Democrático, and when former president and senator Álvaro Uribe, leader of the party and mentor of the current president, has called for a referendum to repeal the JEP and reform the Havana accords.

Since 2019, President Iván Duque has proposed to modify this transitional justice system, but the attempt failed in Congress.

Paradoxically, this week Foreign Minister Claudia Blum told the United Nations Security Council that "the government has supported and continues to support this independent system and its different mechanisms."

The Court is one of the axes of the peace process and not only ex-guerrillas but also military must submit to it to confess crimes committed during the armed conflict in exchange for alternative prison sentences.

To date, 9,759 former FARC combatants and 2,713 members of the Public Force (Police and Army) have submitted to this justice system, as well as 107 other civilians who participated in the conflict.

The current call was made by the JEP's Absence of Recognition Section and the High Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, must attend;

the presidential advisor for Stabilization and Consolidation, Emilio José Archila;

the Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Alberto Carrasquilla;

the Minister of the Interior, Alicia Arango;

the Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo;

and the attorney general, Francisco Barbosa.

Despite the tense relationship between the government and the JEP, Ceballos assured that they will go to the hearing "with the best spirit of collaboration" to explain the actions they have taken as a guarantee of the right to life and politics of party members FARC.

In the same sense, the counselor Emilio Archila spoke, for whom the hearing is "an opportunity" to show the measures that the Government has implemented.

“We have deployed 3,100 troops between the Police and the Army and the Office of the Prosecutor has been proactive.

We have more than 25 sentences that condemn those who have committed these attacks (against ex-guerrillas), there are more than 120 perpetrators in jail, ”Archila said about the hearing that will be held on November 25.