In an unprecedented acknowledgment in front of the families of victims, ten retired soldiers publicly admitted on Tuesday their responsibility for the execution of more than one hundred civilians in 2007 and 2008 in Colombia, misrepresented by the army as guerrillas killed in action. .
These confessions took place during a historic hearing organized by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in the very region of the massacre, in the department of Norte de Santander (north), bordering Venezuela.
A general, four colonels, five soldiers, all retired, and a civilian admitted their participation in the kidnapping of 120 young people in the small town of Ocana to murder them in cold blood and then present them as members of the guerrillas of extreme left operating in the area.
On Tuesday, around fifty relatives of the victims took their places in the Ocana university theater for this hearing where the ex-soldiers were called upon to “explain themselves clearly, answer questions and above all recognize their responsibility live, in the face of the victims and the country,” according to Judge Catalina Diaz.
– “False positives” –
This public hearing in the form of catharsis is a major step in bringing to light by the JEP, a special tribunal resulting from the historic peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), of the largest scandal in the recent history of the Colombian army, known as “false positives”.
Often in tears, the wives, mothers and sisters of the victims faced the former soldiers, in civilian clothes but always with short hair. Among them were Brigadier General Paulino Coronado, the highest ranking officer to appear.
“After years of silence and fear, the hour of truth has finally come to end decades of impunity,” explained the JEP in a video released before the statements of the ex-soldiers.
“I recognize and accept my responsibility as a co-perpetrator of these war crimes,” said Nestor Gutierrez, a corporal at the time of the events and the first of the respondents to speak.
“We murdered innocent people (…) I want to emphasize it: those we murdered were simple peasants”, he admitted, referring to “the pressure from the high command” and its “demands for results”. .
The defendants have in turn specified the circumstances in which they murdered these men, aged between 25 and 35, peasants detained by force or young people deceived by promises of work, in a region where the cultivation of coca is omnipresent. .
They were then executed on a farm near the Ocana barracks or in isolated areas. A practice motivated by an “institutional policy of the army consisting in counting the bodies” to inflate its results in the fight against the guerrillas, castigated the judge presiding over the hearing.
– Charms and promotions –
In exchange, the soldiers received bonuses, permissions, promotions and medals, explained the magistrate.
“I ask you to rehabilitate the names of our relatives (…). They were peasants who worked honestly, not criminals or guerrillas”, said Eduvina Becerra, companion of José Ortega, one of the murdered farmers.
“The army deceived us, they killed our brothers, our sons”, denounced Sandra Barbosa, sister of a victim.
According to the JEP, some 6,400 civilians were executed between 2002 and 2008 across the country in exchange for material benefits for the military. To date, about twenty of them have admitted their responsibility for these crimes.
The military high command and the right-wing ex-president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2008), then at the head of the country, have always denied systematic action, speaking of “isolated cases”.
The JEP judges the worst crimes of the conflict which lasted more than half a century and left nine million dead, missing, kidnapped, mutilated and displaced.
According to the 2016 agreement, those who confess to their crimes and provide reparations to their victims will benefit from alternative sentences to prison.
In January, the JEP indicted eight former FARC leaders for the kidnapping of 21,396 people. The ex-rebels, who admitted their responsibility, have not yet received their sanction.
The first awards are expected in 2022.