In an unprecedented acknowledgment before the families of victims, 10 retired soldiers publicly acknowledged on Tuesday April 26 their responsibility for the execution of more than 100 civilians in 2007/2008 in Colombia, misrepresented as guerrillas killed in combat by the 'army.
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These public confessions took place during a historic hearing organized by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), in the very region of the massacre, in the department of Norte de Santander, bordering Venezuela.
Hearing to “explain oneself clearly”
An ex-general, four colonels, five other former soldiers and a civilian admitted their participation in the kidnapping of 120 young people in the small town of Ocana and several neighboring localities, to murder them in cold blood and then present them as members of far-left guerrillas and other armed groups operating in the area.
On Tuesday morning, dozens of people, including around fifty relatives of the victims - mostly women - took their places in the Ocana university theater for this hearing, during which the ex-soldiers had to "
explain themselves clearly , answer questions and above all recognize their responsibility directly, to the victims and to the country
,” according to Judge Catalina Diaz, who is presiding over the hearing.
Scandal of “false positives”
This public hearing in the form of catharsis is a major step in bringing to light by the JEP, a special tribunal resulting from the historic peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC, of the biggest scandal in the recent history of the Colombian armed forces, known as "
false positives
".
Serious faces marked by emotion, the wives, mothers and sisters of the victims faced the former soldiers on the platform, in civilian clothes but always with short hair.
“
After years of silence and fear, the hour of truth has finally come to end decades of impunity
,” explained the JEP in a video released prior to the statements of the ex-soldiers.
A "
truth and accountability hearing
," said Judge Catalina Diaz.
"
I recognize and accept my responsibility as a co-perpetrator of these war crimes
," said Nestor Gutierrez, corporal of the 15th Mobile Brigade at the time of the events, on the microphone.
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“
We murdered innocent people, peasants.
I want to underline it: those whom we murdered were simple peasants
”, pleaded the former soldier, evoking “
the pressure of the high command
” and its “
requirements of result
”.
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