About twenty soldiers, including a general, recognized their responsibility in the execution in the 2000s of hundreds of civilians who were then presented as guerrillas killed in combat, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) said on Friday (December 10).
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The JEP, a special tribunal created in 2016,
"received the confessions of 21 members of the national army (...) for the assassination"
of some 247 people, said Judge Catalina Diaz at a conference of hurry. These killings of civilians took place in the coca growing region of Catatumbo (120), on the border with Venezuela, and on the Caribbean coast (127). Another litigant, civilian, admitted to being a
"collaborator of military structures in their illegal actions"
.
The special court had indicted 25 soldiers for their responsibility in the cold-blooded execution of young people, mostly poor peasants, presented as killed in combat to inflate their results in the fight against the guerrillas and the armed groups. In February, the JEP estimated that at least 6,402 civilians died in the hands of soldiers between 2002 and 2008, three times more than the estimates given so far by the prosecution.
The revelation of these "false positives", as the expression is used today, is one of the biggest scandals involving the Colombian army during its confrontation with the far left guerrillas.
The military high command and the former right-wing president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2008), then head of the country, have always denied that this was a systematic action.
The soldiers kept count of the guerrillas and drug traffickers killed and these "positive" results earned them medals, permissions and promotions.
Thousands of dead were in fact civilians shot in cold blood.
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Among the soldiers who admitted their guilt was Brigadier General Paulino Coronado, former commander of the 30th Brigade operating in the border area. Quoted by the JEP, General Coronado presented his
"apologies for the great pain caused"
by
"these execrable acts which resulted in the death of innocent people"
and
"left deep desolation among their loved ones"
.
Born from the peace agreement of 2016 which allowed the disarmament of the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), this tribunal judges the worst crimes of this conflict which lasted more than half a century and made nine millions of victims, dead, missing, kidnapped, mutilated and displaced. According to the peace agreement, those who confess their crimes and award reparations to their victims will benefit from alternative sentences to prison.
Judge Diaz said Friday that two colonels have denied the charges against them and will therefore be brought to justice in conventional courts.
If found guilty, they can be sentenced to terms of up to 20 years in prison.
The twenty soldiers who confessed their crimes will be subjected to a
"public hearing"
, in the presence of the families of the victims, where they will have to acknowledge their acts in a
"complete"
,
"detailed"
and
"exhaustive" manner
.
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In January, the JEP also indicted eight former senior FARC commanders for the kidnapping of 21,396 people.
The former rebels, who admitted their responsibility in court, have not yet received their sanction.
The court plans to hand down its first sentences in 2022.