Four years after the signing of the peace agreements between the FARC and the Colombian government, signed at the instigation of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, the first indictments of guerrilla members were announced at the end of last week.
The JEP, Special Justice for Peace, a tribunal created by the peace accords, has indicted eight former guerrilla leaders for crimes against humanity.
Rodrigo Londono, leader of the FARC party which succeeded the guerrilla, Julian Gallo, deputy, Pablo Catatumbo, senator, Jaime Parra, Milton de Jesus Toncel, Pasto Alape, Rodrigo Granda and Juan Cabrera (who died last Wednesday) are prosecuted for the more than 21,000 kidnappings perpetrated by the guerrillas between 1990 and 2016. Catatumbo and Gallo obtained their parliamentary seats within the framework of the peace agreements.
Read also: Colombia: the Farc buries its nom de guerre and becomes the "Commons"
The JEP details in particular the exactions of the Farc against their hostages, who could be civilians or soldiers: "
The Farc tied the hostages to punish and humiliate them
".
"
The Farc attacked the hostages with beatings, cries, jokes and other physical and psychological mistreatment to punish them, intimidate them
".
"
The Farc used death threats and mock execution as punishment, intimidation, humiliation
."
All Colombian families have been affected in one way or another by the kidnappings.
Journalist and scholar Guillermo Cortes Castro was kidnapped in 2000. His family sent a message to the leader of the guerrilla group that detained him, Henri Castellano, asking him to release the then 74-year-old man, in view of his fragile state of health.
The Farc response was not long in coming: they tied the journalist to two pieces of wood simulating a crucifixion, they killed a hen then doused his body with the blood of the animal before taking a photo of the old man. and send it to the family with this comment: “
pay quickly because see what condition it is in
”.
Drugs and kidnappings
In the early 1990s, the guerrillas were looking for new funding, as financial flows from the USSR ceased with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The guerrillas will then redirect their activity towards drug trafficking and kidnappings.
The latter represented, in 2003, 40% of the sources of their income, according to the French specialist of this organization, Daniel Pécaut, against 50% for drug trafficking.
One of the accused, Pastor Apale, declared a few months ago: "
We made a mistake in launching ourselves into the kidnappings
".
According to Sergio Restrepo, former high commissioner for peace, "
the kidnappings were the great strategic mistake of the Farc during the war
".
Kidnappings could affect anyone, rich or poor.
If the best-known case in France is that of Ingrid Betancourt, all Colombians have become potential targets of the Farc, sometimes for ridiculous but very heavy ransoms for poor families.
Kidnappings are often random encounters.
These were called “
miraculous catches
”.
To read also: Colombia: the leader of the ex-Farc confesses to “hate” what his organization was
“
With the kidnappings, the Farc have lost all sympathy among the population.
It was a political suicide
, ”analyzes the deputy director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, Ariel Avila.
For the latter, the decision of the JEP is not a surprise but it is a shock for the government of Ivan Duque, supported by the former president Alvaro Uribe.
The Colombian president will no longer be able to say that the JEP is unable to take a decision and that this "
transactional justice
", resulting from the peace agreements only serves to prevent the punishment and amnesty of the former guerrillas for the acts committed during the years. of war against the Colombian state.
"
The judges of the JEP heard the victims, the leaders of the army and the guerrillas,"
Ariel Avila recalls
.
Now that the first indictments are known, Farc officials will have to defend their version and provide the many information that is still lacking on the facts committed.
"
President Ivan Duque, opposed to the peace agreements, estimated that “
in Colombia we cannot have different criteria between citizens where some who have committed crimes lose their rights to be elected and others keep their seat as deputy. that they are convicted of crimes against humanity
”. Clara Rojas, who had been kidnapped at the same time as Ingrid Bétancourt, asks that Catatumbo and Gallo be deprived of their parliamentary seat. General Luis Herlindo Mendieta, who remained in the hands of the Farc from 1998 to 2010, believes that "
as long as there are no reparations, there will be no justice
".