2023-11-14 07:01:00
The coordinates of former paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso on several mass graves on the border with Venezuela were just the beginning of a series of clandestine cemeteries that former combatants of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia began to reveal.
After finding the first of these bodies related to the armed conflict, a group of former paramilitaries committed not only to revealing the whereabouts of another 700 mass graves located throughout the country, but also offered to send their ex-combatants to identify the exact points and locations. possible victims who would be buried there for up to three decades.
These are several inmates grouped in the Cómbita Total Peace Roundtable, in Boyacá, who claim to have “the most sincere intention to participate in this reconciliation process” and who, to this end, offer to begin revealing the first graves without any kind of legal benefit, according to them.
In dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO, lawyer Michael Pineda – legal representative of that group of convicts from the Cómbita Prison – assured that the majority of these sites of forensic interest would be in “Córdoba, Antioquia and the South of Bolívar”, so It is ruled out that they are the same graves that Mancuso already located.
“They are very different sites from those that Salvatore Mancuso is already revealing and they will begin to provide the information very shortly. Next Tuesday, November 21, there will be a meeting between the Cómbita Roundtable, the victims and the authorities who will help in this process,” Pineda said.
Regarding this specific case, the Search Unit for Persons Reported as Missing confirmed that it began diplomatic work with the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and that it found the first bodies in the district of Juan Frío, Norte de Santander, as the former paramilitary chief had mapped it.
But, in addition to these forensic sites and the new ones that the Cómbita inmates are promising, the Search Unit has at least another 5,307 mass graves and sites of forensic interest throughout the country.
A very high figure for which the same unit has dared to affirm that “Colombia is an open pit.”
With 1,043 sites of forensic interest, Antioquia is the region with the most illegal sites where there could be bodies from the armed conflict. A figure that contrasts with the 23,077 people reported missing there. The other four departments with the most cases are Meta, with 724 illegal graves and cemeteries; Cesar, with 220; Sucre, with 300 and Chocó, with 249 (see infographic).
The interest of the “exparas”
But the interest of the former paramilitary leaders in revealing these mass graves is not merely humanitarian and solidarity with the victims, since the same letter assures that the objective of the Cómbita Roundtable is for the Government to grant political status to these paramilitaries or that, At least, admit them to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP, “to have the opportunity to tell all the truth that has not been told,” they say.
That purpose, which at first seemed distant and far-fetched, is actually much closer considering that the same chancellor, Álvaro Leyva, asked the United Nations Organization, UN, for the JEP to receive them.
“Let the truth be known. What happened? As a step? Why did it happen? (…) It is imperative that Macaco, Llanos, Jorge 40, Otoniel and others speak, that Mancuso repeat if necessary and former public officials who know who they are, politicians, civilians from the countryside and the city, various pimps, financiers, members of the Public Force, who know the fine print, we need a general uncovering. Let’s go beyond the FARC case,” Leyva said.
For now, the JEP has been elusive with this purpose for two reasons: it assures that it is not within its jurisdiction because it already exists to host the paramilitaries
Justice and Peace, and is overloaded with work with all the armed actors that it already judges and investigates.
Even so, this Tuesday will be a key day to define the future of the former paramilitary leaders in that transitional justice. It is expected that in a hearing scheduled for November 14, the JEP will decide whether to receive Mancuso or not. If it does, that acceptance will set a very important precedent for those ex-combatants who claim to have a lot to say in exchange for legal benefits.
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