Colombia seeks reconciliation and peace through meetings for reconciliation between the guerrillas and their victims
Magistrates, we have come here as the last secretariat of the disappeared FARC and in my capacity as the last commander to acknowledge our responsibility in one of the most abominable crimes committed by our organization, going against the values on which our struggle was inspired. . The words correspond to Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias Timochenko at the time he commanded the guerrilla group, and were pronounced during the first of the three hearings scheduled by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), for the acknowledgment of responsibility of the Colombian guerrilla. in the kidnapping and disappearance of 21,396 people identified by name and identity card. In a historic statement, the former leaders of the FARC apologized after admitting the kidnapping as a crime in the war they maintained with the State between 1993 and 2012.
Colombia has once again felt what a country is like that has lived for years bathed in the horror of violence, bleeding throughout its political and territorial geography. Now it is the guerrilla that recognizes its crimes against humanity. In April it was the military who admitted to having committed murders and forced disappearances that were presented as combat casualties. More than 6,400 civilians killed as if they were guerrillas when they were not.
Until now, the most combative guerrilla that Colombia has had spoke of kidnapping as a revolutionary reason. Today he admits the opposite. The former chiefs of the extinct FARC were ordered by some of their victims to tell the truth. «I forgave. To continue with hatred is to continue being kidnapped,” said Óscar Tulio Lizcano, a former congressman held for eight years, who asked the former guerrillas to tell what happened to the kidnapped people who died in captivity or the recruited children who ended up murdered.
21,396 victims
According to the JEP investigation, of the 21,396 people identified as victims of serious deprivation of liberty, of being subjected to torture, cruel treatment, sexual violence and homicide, 9% were men and 21% women. 5% were children or adolescents. 8.7% were considered missing, while 2.9% were murdered and their bodies handed over. A total of 14 years was the longest captivity.
Pablo Catatumbo Victoria, who arrived at the FARC secretariat in 2008, admitted that the kidnapping was one of the most painful events of this war, “The skin of pain is reflected in them,” he said, later admitting that he never imagined that the war could reach such extremes of cruelty. “I never imagined how incredibly hard, how terribly heartbreaking it would be to sit in front of you and listen to all the damage we caused you,” he agreed.
One of the truths that Catatumbo admitted was that during the conflict “many soldiers and policemen were taken prisoner and were released after a while. But in 1997 a plenary session of the General Staff, which I attended, decided (and of course I am responsible) to take them hostage and force a humanitarian exchange for the guerrillas who were in jail. In 1998 another serious decision was adopted: to include civilians in the exchange».
Pastor Lisandro Alape Lascano, also a former commander of the guerrilla group, acknowledged his responsibility. “We are here to assume our responsibility. Especially when we realize that our organization has become a hate machine.
The harshest statement by one of the victims about the seven former members of the guerrilla group came from former congressman Orlando Beltrán: “You are a pack of murderers and criminals who deserve the rejection of Colombian society.” Beltrán also called them genocidal and compared them to Hitler.
The fact that the victims can speak at these hearings means a lot for the work of the JEP, a body created after the Peace Agreement signed in 2016 between the FARC and the Government of Juan Manuel Santos, for which the president received the Nobel Peace Prize. The objective is none other than to satisfy the victims’ right to Justice, offer them the truth and contribute to their reparation with the purpose of building a stable and lasting peace.
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