Colombia seeks reconciliation and peace through reconciliation meetings between the guerrillas and their victims
Magistrates, we have come here as the last secretariat of the vanished FARC and in my capacity as the last commander to acknowledge our responsibility in one of the most heinous crimes committed by our organization, contrary to the values on which our struggle was inspired. The words correspond to Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, aka Timochenko when he was in command of the guerrilla group, and were spoken at the first of three hearings scheduled by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), recognizing the responsibility of the Colombian guerrillas. in the kidnapping and disappearance of 21,396 persons identified by name and identity card. In a landmark statement, the former FARC leaders apologized after admitting that the kidnapping was a crime in the war they waged with the state between 1993 and 2012.
Colombia has once again felt like a country that has lived for years in the horror of violence, bleeding from its political and territorial geography. Now it is the guerrilla who recognizes his crimes against humanity. In April, it was the military who admitted to committing murders and enforced disappearances who were presented as combat casualties. More than 6,400 civilians were killed as if they were guerrillas, when they were not.
Until now, the most combative guerrilla Colombia has had talked about kidnapping as a revolutionary reason. Today he admits the opposite. The former leaders of the extinct FARC were instructed by some of their victims to tell the truth. «I have forgiven. To continue hatred is to remain kidnapped,” said Óscar Tulio Lizcano, a former congressman who was imprisoned for eight years, who asked former guerrillas to tell what happened to the kidnapped people who died in captivity or the recruited children who were eventually killed.
According to the JEP survey, of the 21,396 people identified as victims of serious deprivation of liberty, torture, cruel treatment, sexual assault and murder, 9% were male and 21% were female. 5% were children or adolescents. 8.7% were considered missing, while 2.9% were murdered and their bodies turned 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. war can reach such extreme atrocities. “I never imagined how incredibly difficult, how terribly heartbreaking it would be to sit in front of you and listen to all the damage we’ve done to him,” he agreed.
One of the truths Catatumbo admitted was that during the conflict “many soldiers and police officers were captured and released after a while. But in 1997, a General Staff plenary meeting I attended (and of course I am responsible) decided to take them hostage and force a humanitarian exchange for the guerrillas who were in prison. In 1998 another serious decision was taken: involving citizens in the exchange».
Pastor Lisandro Alape Lascano, also a former commander of the guerrilla group, acknowledged his responsibility. “We are here to take our responsibility. Especially when we realize that our organization has become a hate machine.
The harshest statement from one of the victims about the seven former members of the guerrilla group came from former congressman Orlando Beltrán: “You are a band 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 during these hearings means a lot for the work of the JEP, a body that was 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. received . The aim is nothing more than to satisfy the victims’ right to justice, to offer them the truth and to contribute to their recovery with the aim of building a stable and lasting peace.
Source: La Verdad
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