The expulsion of the three Irish who trained the FARC closes the chapter of foreigners in the JEP

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the transitional justice created as a result of the Peace Agreement with the extinct FARC, has expelled from its system Martin John McCauley, Niall Terrence Connolly and Séamus O’ Muineacháin, three Irishmen convicted in 2004 for having trained fighters of that guerrilla. His case is iconic because it was the only one that investigated the participation of foreign armed groups in the Colombian armed conflict. With his expulsion, that court is left without cases to delve into that facet of the war.

The other foreigners related to the FARC who have appeared before the JEP are the Dutch Tanja Nijmeijer and the Argentine Facundo Morales. But the case of the Irish was an unprecedented possibility to know if the FARC was militarily related to armed groups in other countries. The foreigners were accused of being members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and, according to justice, they arrived in Colombia as instructors during the failed peace negotiations with the Government of Andrés Pastrana.

Although they were convicted when they were outside the country, an extradition request has been in force since then, which was only suspended in 2020, when the JEP gave them the possibility of being amnestied. In exchange, they promised to tell about their participation in the conflict and details of what they knew about the guerrilla.

The Irish had already given their version of the events to the already closed Truth Commission, headed by former commissioner Alejandro Valencia, between 2021 and 2022. Valencia certified to the JEP that the three foreign citizens made two written contributions about their truth of the war in Colombia, in which they managed to record the role of other States. “For example, the role of Cuba, of the United States, but not so much of the combatants personally,” he explained to this newspaper in a telephone conversation.

Valencia also explained that the Truth Commission managed to advance in diplomacy and insurgent support. “In the first stage, there was political support from the Soviet Union and China; in a second moment, starting with the Cuban revolution. There was not only political but also logistical support from countries like Cuba, Libya and Vietnam.” He also said that it was pending to clarify and study the role of other States such as Israel or Germany in the Colombian conflict.

With this background, when the Irish asked to submit to transitional justice, the magistrates expected them to provide information to unravel several questions that were never resolved, such as the possible relationship that the FARC secretariat had with the IRA and other international criminal organizations. , in addition to knowing if the extinct guerrilla paid for those training sessions and what the means of contact were. But since they are third parties, not members of the extinct guerrilla, the three foreigners can only enter that special justice system, and benefit from their reduced sentences or amnesties, if they contribute to the truth.

However, for the magistrates of the Amnesty and Pardon Chamber, that never happened, despite the fact that the Irish were subject to the JEP for more than three years. In the 66-page order in which they made the decision to expel them from that justice, published on May 23, they argue that they failed to comply with the specific commitments they signed when requesting their entry.

Specifically, the magistrates explain that McCauley, Connolly and O’ Muineacháin never provided details of unknown events of the war, nor did they justify their visits to the guerrilla camps and assured that they only wanted to exchange opinions about what was happening in the war in Northern Ireland. and in Colombia. This, despite having a 17-year sentence for falsifying documents and training for illicit activities. “The fact of claiming innocence does not exempt those appearing from the duty to provide the full truth,” says the court document.

The decision highlights that, among the evidence that the Prosecutor’s Office presented against the three Irishmen in the case tried in 2024, there was enough documentation to believe that “their objective was to exchange technology on homemade devices and to train members of the FARC-EP.” ”. However, in their official statements before the JEP they denied that relationship and alleged that in the ordinary jurisdiction they were victims of a “judicial setup.”

“Messrs. Mc Cauley, Connolly and O’ Muineacháin limited themselves to pointing out that they had no participation in the conduct that was attributed to them by the Colombian justice system,” the order reads. It was the same line of argument that, according to a source who was part of the process two decades ago, they had already done before ordinary justice. And that, although it is a plausible defense, it does not contribute to the truth or knowledge of the war, as was its commitment.

Judge Marcela Giraldo Muñoz departed from the decision of her colleagues. In her bailout, she argued that foreigners may not have information about the FARC’s criminal activities, and therefore there is no way for them to contribute it. He also states that, as judges of the Peace Court, the magistrates cannot base themselves solely on the 2004 conviction. Precisely with these arguments, lawyer Diego Martínez, who represents the Irish and several former guerrillas, appealed the expulsion decision, which is now wait for a second instance.

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