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Bogota (AFP) – The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a transitional justice mechanism that investigates the armed conflict in Colombia, on Monday charged 19 soldiers with war crimes and crimes against humanity for the murder of 303 people, most of them civilians, who they presented as having fallen in combat between 2005 and 2008.
The executions are part of the so-called “false positives”, a scandalous plot of blood that Army officers put together to inflate their results in the fight against the guerrillas.
In a public statement, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) claimed to have gathered evidence to charge the 19 soldiers, in addition to an intelligence agent and two civilians, for the murder and forced disappearance of hundreds of people in the department of Casanare, in the east of the country.
The uniformed men belonged to the XVI Brigade, where “a criminal organization” was established to assassinate and “falsely” present civilians as guerrillas or criminals “killed in combat,” the magistrates said.
Among the 303 victims, most are men between the ages of 18 and 25, but there are also “nine women, one LGBTI person, the elderly, people with cognitive disabilities” and others who were deceived with promises of work.
The JEP also determined that the troops executed civilians who “were encouraged to consume alcohol or drugs.”
The members of the XVI Brigade received in exchange “permits, special meals, vacation plans, training courses abroad and recognition” to promote their promotion.
6,402 “false positives”
The same practice was extended to various military units between 2002 and 2008, under the right-wing government of Álvaro Uribe. The JEP estimates that the military committed 6,402 murders in that period.
The 19 soldiers, and the other three accused this Monday, will have to admit or reject the charges in the following weeks. A general and four retired colonels are among those charged.
If they confess their responsibility and make amends to their victims, they may receive alternative sentences to prison, otherwise they risk 20 years in prison.
#Attention The JEP charges 22 members of the Army in Casanare with 303 cases of false positives.
Among those to the general (r) Henry Torres Escalante #Developing
– BluRadio Colombia (@BluRadioCo) July 25, 2022
Emerging from the 2016 peace agreement with the then-guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxists), the JEP deals with the heinous crimes committed in almost six decades of conflict by rebels and state agents.
The magistrates have also accused the high command of the armed organization, today a left-wing political party, for 21,000 kidnappings.
In June, the leadership of the dissolved guerrilla group acknowledged their responsibility and apologized to the victims, in order to avail themselves of criminal benefits.
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