Turning the page on violence has cost Colombia an extraordinary effort, a country affected by an armed conflict of more than half a century that involved guerrillas, paramilitaries and state forces.
The country looks this Tuesday at the painful truth of a war with the long-awaited final report with which the Truth Commission, which emerged from the peace agreement with the FARC, concludes its mandate.
Unlike other truth commissions, the work of the Colombian was raided from the outset by the efforts of research centers, universities and organizations -including the National Center for Historical Memory (CNMH)-, which have documented the causes and implications of a conflict that has left more than nine million victims, and that has disproportionately affected rural, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
The Commission has worked tirelessly, despite the ravages of the pandemic.
He has heard nearly 30,000 testimonies from victims, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, peasants, soldiers, members of illegal armed groups, politicians, businessmen, and even former presidents Ernesto Samper (1994-1998), César Gaviria (1990-1994), Juan Manuel Santos, Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) and Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), the strongest critic of the agreements.
It also received more than a thousand reports from different organizations.
When did the Colombian Truth Commission begin?
The Truth Commission, chaired by the Jesuit priest Francisco de Roux, formally began its work on November 30, 2018 with the purpose of delivering a final report that dignifies the victims and sheds light on the barbarity of the armed conflict.
Originally he was to complete his task in three years, but in the face of the ravages of the pandemic, a decision by the Constitutional Court extended his term until this Tuesday, June 28, with another two months to socialize the final report.
“The truth must be a public good, a right and an inescapable duty when it comes to explaining why life and dignity were devastated in thousands of massacres, forced disappearances, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, abuses of women, displacements, robberies. of land (...) murders of trade unionists, educators, politicians, governors and businessmen, deaths in senseless combats of multitudes of young people in an absurd war, and destruction of rivers, mountains and native species”, said De Roux during that act of installation at the Corferias exhibition center in Bogotá.
It was the first of the moving speeches that he has delivered over these three long years, which will culminate in his calling the country to reconcile without avoiding the truth.
President Iván Duque was not at that inaugural ceremony at the beginning of his term, nor will he attend the delivery of the final report at the Jorge Eliécer Gaitán theater in Bogotá, since he is visiting Europe.
Yes, the president-elect, Gustavo Petro, is expected to take office on August 7.
What is the Comprehensive Peace System?
The Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition, the formal name with which it came to light, is an extrajudicial entity created as part of the peace agreement signed at the end of 2016 between the Government of Juan Manuel Santos and the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), today disarmed and converted into the renamed Comunes political party.
In other words, the Commission does not intend to provide a legal truth, but it has worked in coordination with the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the transitional justice system that will operate for a period of 15 years - extendable for another five -, and the Search Unit for Persons Considered Missing.
Together they constitute the renamed Comprehensive System for Peace contemplated in the agreements –formerly known as the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition–.
Who are the Truth Commissioners?
In addition to Father
Francisco de Roux
, a philosopher and economist who founded the Middle Magdalena Peace and Development Program, among the original eleven commissioners – five women and six men – were seasoned journalists, victims, human rights defenders and academics chosen from almost 200 candidates.
Among the other commissioners are the economist and feminist
Alejandra Miller
;
the lawyer and human rights defender
Alejandro Valencia
;
the journalist
Marta Ruíz
;
the architect
Lucía González
, former director of the Casa de la Memoria Museum in Medellín;
the lawyer, Emberá indigenous and constitutionalist
Patricia Tobón Yagarí
;
and the doctor
Saúl Franco
.
The only foreigner has been the Spanish doctor and psychologist
Carlos Martín Beristain
, who has been an advisor to several truth commissions in different countries, while the only ex-military man, retired Major
Carlos Guillermo Ospina
, presented his immediate and irrevocable resignation last 2 of May.
Along the way, the entity had to overcome the death of two of its commissioners.
At the end of 2019, the journalist and sociologist
Alfredo Molano
died , and in August 2020, the Afro leader
Ángela Salazar
, affected by the coronavirus.
Both were very connected to the communities affected by the armed conflict.
Their relays had to join with the work in progress.
Molano was replaced by anthropologist
Alejandro Castillejo
, and Salazar was replaced by
Leyner Palacios
, one of the most representative social leaders of black communities, a survivor of the Bojayá massacre, where he lost 28 relatives in May 2002.
Was the Colombian exile part of the Commission's work?
The Commission, like the entire comprehensive system, found strong support in the international community, and also worked with the Colombian communities that fled because of the armed conflict in 23 other countries.
The Colombian exiles, who have settled in places ranging from Chile to Iceland, had already mobilized since the negotiations with the FARC so that their story could be heard at the dialogue table in Havana.
Now they have a special chapter in the final report, coordinated by Carlos Martín Beristain, the only foreign commissioner.
How did the pandemic affect the Truth Commission?
As in the rest of the world, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the political agenda in Colombia and slowed down various aspects of the implementation of the peace agreement.
The health emergency particularly affected the Commission.
Its mission has been to identify and understand the most serious acts of violence, with a focus on the patterns that were repeated, so that fieldwork has included collecting testimonies in remote villages, ethnic territories and indigenous reservations.
The confinement and social distancing measures limited this territorial deployment, often in regions where violence has intensified.
Initially, the Commission modified its schedule to privilege the documentary study instead of the dialogues and meetings that it had been organizing.
But later it resumed those spaces, supported by virtuality and with blended events.
The acts of recognition and coexistence that bring together perpetrators and victims in deep and human dialogues advanced despite the limitations, but the time to process that enormous volume of information was limited.
Why was her period prolonged?
The Constitutional Court, after studying a lawsuit from several victims' organizations, decided last October to extend the Truth Commission's period for seven months.
The lawsuit argued that it was necessary to make up for delays caused by the pandemic to protect the rights of victims and comply with the peace agreement.
The Constitutional Court established in its ruling that the three years of duration planned for the Commission must be effective, something that the pandemic prevented.
What will happen to the final report when the Truth Commission is dissolved?
Although its work ends with the final report, the Commission has another two months to socialize it with the purpose of dignifying the victims and having an impact on public policies.
From this same Tuesday, the Follow-up and Monitoring Committee is also formed, in charge for a period of seven years of reviewing that the recommendations are implemented.
Among its functions is publishing semi-annual reports to assess progress.
It will be made up of seven members who have already been chosen, although their names are not yet publicly known.
During its first semester, it will have another person chosen by the full commissioners to contribute to the joint.
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