The leaders of the extinct FARC guerrilla for the first time pleaded guilty to the victims of the more than 21,000 kidnappings they are charged with at a hearing Tuesday (21), before the court that tried the worst crimes in the Colombian conflict.
The last commander of the former guerrilla began his explorations while sitting in front of several kidnapping victims and their families in an auditorium in Bogotá.
On behalf of the 13,000 fighters who laid down their arms, Rodrigo Londoño, known as ‘Timochenko’ during the conflict, admitted “individual and collective responsibility for one of the most heinous crimes” by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Building on the peace agreement with the then guerrilla in Havana in 2016, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in 2021 charged former top members of the guerrilla with crimes against humanity related to thousands of kidnappings and other crimes. Torture committed between 1990 and 2016.
Former guerrilla commanders Pablo Catatumbo, Pastor Alape, Milton Toncel and Julián Gallo also apologized during the three-day trial.
Jaime Parra, known as FARC’s “doctor” and “chancellor” Rodrigo Granda, will be able to accept their responsibilities until next Thursday, when the hearings end.
The JEP determined that the FARC had implemented “a national policy of kidnapping civilians” beginning in the 1980s.
Amid protests by victims denouncing the lack of truth, ‘Timochenko’ acknowledged that the crimes were “the result of a policy that has resulted in crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
Victims will have 15 days to make their observations, and JEP estimates magistrates will impose sanctions within three months.
According to the agreement in Havana, ex-guerrillas must offer compensation to victims and tell the truth to avoid arrest.
‘Where?’
Politicians and soldiers kidnapped by the FARC during the protracted conflict heard the confessions and objected to what they saw as the perpetrators’ “debt to contribute to the truth.”
Óscar Tulio Lizcano, who was abducted in 2000 as a conservative congressman, asked his “guards” to reveal the whereabouts of the kidnappers.
“To tell us the truth,” said the 75-year-old former parliamentarian, who managed to escape from his captors in 2008. “We forgive, but that doesn’t mean we give up on justice, we want the truth.”
“#DondeEstan?” An exhibition of photos with the hashtag (“Where are they?”, Spanish translation) and letters sent to the guerrilla command reached those who attended the public event.
Judge Julieta Lemaître, who chaired the session, said the kidnappings were “the result of a policy adopted by the secretariat”. [cúpula] FARC-EP” and “committed by direct subordinates”.
According to Lemaitre, the JEP identified three types of kidnapping: the detention of “civilians who crossed the territory” of the rebel administration, the kidnappings “to get a ransom payment”, and the exchange with imprisoned insurgents.
In the middle of the trial, Colombian-French Ígrid Betancourt confronted Toncel to demand that he not withhold details about other individuals involved in the six-year kidnapping while campaigning for president in 2002.
– ‘Painful’ – JEP’s first such action with ex-combatants comes two days after the presidential election, which resulted in the victory of leftist Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and senator of the nationalist group M-19, 30 years ago, to a political party. advocating the peace treaty that signed and disarmed the FARC.
On August 7, Petro will take office before a Congress of nine ex-guerrillas who, thanks to Pablo Catatumbo and the peace deal, will have a guaranteed seat in parliament by 2026.
At today’s hearing, Catatumbo expressed his “pain” over the kidnappings: “I never imagined how incredibly difficult, how painful it would be to sit in front of you and hear all the damage we have done to you.”
In May, about 20 retired military personnel, including a general, admitted to participating in the killing of more than 100 civilians for playing the role of a fallen guerilla in the war on the Venezuelan border.
The court estimates that at least 6,400 people are victims of what are known as ‘false positives’, a practice that, along with kidnappings, has killed Colombia in more than six decades of conflict.
source: Noticias
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