BOGOTÁ, Colombia – The evidence is on fire. “They tied me to a tree,” said one Colombian guerrilla victim. “They put us in a cage,” said another. “I was abducted for four years.”
“Until then, I had not heard of ‘mass graves,'” an army victim said. “Finally, I understand that those responsible for protecting civilians have killed thousands of Colombians.”
After decades of civil war, Colombia created a historic post-war court designed to reveal the facts of a conflict that has defined the nation for generations, turning into the longest-running war in America.
Thousands testified. Extensive investigations are underway. The first charges were issued in January – and the first pleas are expected in April. Offenders will be punished, and those who acknowledge responsibility will receive fewer, “restorative” sentences, such as house arrest or staying free while doing hard physical labor. Those who refuse to do so will be tried and face the possibility of decades in prison.
The purpose of the court, which began its work in 2018, is to give the country a general account of the conflict, which will enable Colombian people to move together. The success of the court, called the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, could help change the trajectory of a nation that has been at war for much of its history, with one conflict playing almost immediately into the next.
Its failure can mean the repetition of the cycle.
“We have a window – a generational opportunity – to leave behind the insane violence in which we have lived our entire lives,” said Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who has been kidnapped for more than six years and detained by guerrillas. said. . “I want us to be able to open the window and let the light in.”
Colombia’s most recent conflicts date back to the 1960s, when a left-wing rebel group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, started an uprising with the aim of recreating a sharply unequal society.
The war grew into a complex battle among left-wing guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries, the military, drug cartels, and the United States, which provided and advised the military.
For years, everyday life was marked by bombings, kidnappings and assassinations. At least 220,000 people have been killed and more than five million displaced. The war ended in 2016, when the FARC and the government signed a peace agreement that included the creation of the post-war court.
But if the purpose of the court is to unearth buried truths, it is clear that this search will also dig up and aggravate long divisions – and that the way to a common story, if it can be found, will be led by conflict.
Some see the court as their best chance of finding answers about lost loved ones, and the country’s best hope for peace; others are angry that assassins and kidnappers will not get jail time; still others simply reject the court’s findings, saying the institution is biased in favor of the former guerrillas.
The main critic of the court is former president. Álvaro Uribe, who led the last years of the war, and who is still the country’s most divisive and influential political figure. A recent court report implicated the military in more than 6,400 civilian deaths from 2002 to 2008, during its presidency.
Mr. Uribe reacted to the report by calling it an ‘attack’ with ‘only one purpose’, ‘to discredit me personally.’
The court is being held in an imposing black building on a highway in the Colombian capital, Bogotá. Some testimonies have been made public and have been streamed on social media or released in public documents, providing a window into decades of suffering. To protect the safety of participants, much of it takes place behind closed doors.
So far, the court’s findings have been explosive, with the number of victims much higher than previously confirmed, and stubborn accusations that many skeptics did not expect.
In January, magistrates issued their first indictment, accusing eight top FARC leaders of organizing a kidnapping-for-ransom operation that lasted decades and led to more than 20,000 victims, many of whom were civilians, some of whom were raped. or was killed. The kidnappings were used to fund the uprising, the court said, amounting to crimes against humanity.
The accused former FARC leaders have indicated they will admit guilt. If they do, they will receive non-imprisonment, which can include up to eight years of digging up old landmines or locating bodies. If they do not admit guilt, they will get a trial and the possibility of decades behind bars.
They have until late April to answer the court.
“We accept collective responsibility,” Julián Gallo, who is among the accused leaders, said in an interview.
“These were practices that delegitimized our fight in some form,” he continued. “What we have asked for is forgiveness.”
Some view the charges and the reaction of the accused as a sign that the court’s decisions will be taken seriously, making it possible to establish the common story.
Héctor Angulo’s parents, a metalworker and housewife, were abducted on April 19, 2000 by the FARC. He sold his house and paid a ransom for their release, but the guerrillas never returned his parents. He spent two decades searching for their bodies, he said.
He is not sure if he will ever be able to forgive, he said, “because the pain one feels for a family member is irreparable.” But he supports the court’s work, he added, because “that’s what we have.”
Ximena Ochoa opposes the court. Her mother was abducted by the rebels on December 16, 1990, detained for four horrible months and released after her family paid a hefty ransom. She believes the court is a diversion to alleviate the FARC’s unsolved crimes. The guerrillas, for example, have yet to hand over much of their war coffin.
The court will allow the former rebels to acknowledge some things, an attempt to reassure the international community by claiming that justice has been done in Colombia.
“This whole transitional justice is a joke,” she said. Of the FARC, she added: “They are never going to tell the whole truth.”
Two of the rebel leaders accused of crimes against humanity are sitting senators, including Mr. Gallo – the result of a provision in the peace agreement that turned the FARC into a political party and gave it 10 seats in the 280-member legislature.
Some victims are appealing to the accused senators to resign. Others, including me. Betancourt, believes they should be allowed to stay.
“It is very important that we tell Colombia that we are building a democracy that is mature enough to listen to the political voice of people who have committed crimes,” but then “accept and sign the peace agreement,” she said. .
In February, magistrates turned their attention to the crimes of the army and the issuance of the sharp report who involved officials in the deliberate murder of at least 6402 civilians when Mr. Uribe was in office.
The killings were part of a previously revealed strategy in which Colombian soldiers or their allies lured civilians from their homes with the promise of work, killing them afterwards and trying to kill them as a fighter. Many of the victims were poor, some were mentally handicapped.
The idea was to show that the government was winning the war.
In Colombia, the scandal is one of the most discussed aspects of the conflict, and victims have become known as ‘false positives’. In a previous report by the country’s top prosecutor, the number of victims was set at 2,248.
The court’s new number is almost three times as high, implying that a significant percentage of combat murders in that era were civil killings.
The Association of Retired Military Generals responded to the court’s announcement by calling the numbers ‘inflated’, and an attempt to delegitimize the commendable work of the army.
Magistrates are expected to start announcing charges in the scandal later this year.
Mr. Uribe, who has repeatedly said he did everything in his power to stop the killings, has been released as former president of the court.
During one of the court’s public hearings, Jacqueline Castillo described how her brother Jaime, a civilian, disappeared one day in August 2008 and reappeared days later in a mass grave far from home, identified by the military. as a rebel killed in battle. She went to the grave, she said, and watched as men retrieved her brother from the earth.
Previously, she idolized the Colombian army.
“They were my heroes,” she said, pressing her palm to her heart. “Now they make me sad.”
Sofía Villamil reported.