Colombian Peace Court charges military personnel with torture and persecution

On Monday, the Colombian Peace Court charged a group of soldiers involved in the crimes of torture and persecution against indigenous peoples. cases of “false positives”as the extrajudicial murders of people who were falsely presented as guerrillas killed in combat are known in the country.

The new crimes were charged within the framework of the investigation to a group of soldiers who recognized their responsibility for the murder and forced disappearance of more than a hundred people, some belonging to indigenous peoples, between 2002 and 2005. The Court evaluated the individual responsibility, therefore, four soldiers were charged only with torture, three with persecution and four more with both crimes.

The magistrates of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the court created by the peace agreement signed in 2016 between the State and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), concluded that the crime of persecution against the people was committed. Kankuamo and Wiwa indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, located in the north of the country, because the murders of their members were due to belonging to said peoples.

Ever de Jesús Montero Mindiola, a Kankuamo indigenous person, was murdered in August 2003 in northern Colombia. His body was found dressed in camouflage clothing that guerrillas used to wear. The JEP concluded that the victim “was hooded, restrained and held for a long time prior to his execution” and as part of the coercion they made him identify as a member of an illegal armed group without being one, the indictment stated.

According to the court, the military developed a strategy in which the members of the indigenous peoples “became military objectives.”

Furthermore, the court affirmed that the military acted in complicity with paramilitary groups—dedicated to persecuting leftist guerrillas—. In some cases, the paramilitaries handed over the dead or alive victims to the military after being identified as their “enemies.”

Judge Ana Manuel Ochoa told the press that the new crimes were charged after the victims, especially the indigenous peoples, insisted that they include more crimes against the military.

“We heard from the victims that the crime of torture had not been charged and we also heard from the indigenous peoples… that the crime of genocide, extermination and also persecution had been committed,” Ochoa explained.

The magistrates only found that the military had committed the crimes of torture and persecution, of which they will be notified.

The court indicated that the military will be summoned to attend a public hearing to verify their contribution to the truth and then a sentence will be issued in which “own sanctions” will be imposed, that is, they do not involve going to jail but yes restrictions on freedoms and residence rights, as well as reparation to victims through projects or symbolic actions.

The JEP has not issued sentences in any case related to the armed conflict in Colombia that spanned five decades. It is expected that in the coming months it will do so in cases of “false positives” and kidnappings committed by the FARC.

The investigation of “false positives” is one of the most advanced within the cases investigated by the JEP, grouped by the most representative crimes and places in the country where the conflict was present. The court estimates that the number of victims of “false positives” amounts to 6,402, the majority murdered between 2002 and 2008.

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