Former Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos apologized for the killing of thousands of civilians during his tenure as defense minister.
"That should never have happened, I acknowledge that and I ask for forgiveness, from the bottom of my soul, from all mothers and their families who were victims of this horror," said Santos in front of the so-called Truth Commission on Friday.
Santos was Minister of Defense from 2006 to 2009 and President from 2010 to 2018.
According to the Special Justice for Peace (JEP), the Colombian military killed at least 6,402 civilians between 2002 and 2008 and pretended to be enemy guerrilla fighters in order to meet quotas and receive rewards for doing so.
Money as an incentive for the killings
Santos, who won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, said the pressures and rewards to produce casualties were undoubtedly the incentives for the killings.
However, the ex-president did not want to speak of systemic killings.
Colombia has suffered armed conflict between the armed forces, left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries for over 50 years.
More than 220,000 people were killed during the civil war and millions were displaced within Colombia.
In 2016, the largest rebel organization, Farc, signed a peace treaty with the government of Santos, who succeeded Álvaro Uribe, and laid down their arms.
In the treaty, a special jurisdiction and the truth commission were agreed to guarantee peace.
Mothers call for meetings with Santos
The so-called falsos positivos (false positives) are one of the most painful and emotional aspects of coming to terms with the civil war, also because they were often young men who were lured away from home with the prospect of well-paid work.
Mothers and family members like in the association “Mothers of Soacha” fight for justice to this day.
So on Friday they called for “a meeting where Juan Manuel Santos looks us in the eye.
For more than 13 years we have shouted that our sons were not guerrillas.
We finally heard it from his mouth. "