Colombia: unprecedented confessions of former soldiers responsible for the execution of civilians

Ten retirees from the Colombian army began, on April 26, 2022 in the town of Ocaña, to acknowledge their responsibility for the assassination of 120 civilians later presented as rebels killed in combat, in the late 2000s. AFP - SCHNEYDER MENDOZA

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

In Colombia, historic confessions: in front of the families of victims, ten retired soldiers publicly admitted on Tuesday April 26 their responsibility for the execution of more than one hundred civilians in 2007 and 2008. At the time, the army had presented the victims as guerrillas killed in action.

Advertisement

Read more

The confessions of retired corporal Néstor Guillermo Gutiérrez were broadcast on Colombian television.

I am going to affirm it here, publicly: in the case of the death of Javier Peña, it was a peasant, as in the case of the rest of these families, their sons, their husbands, we have slabs, set up a theater to simulate a fight, and it was under pressure from the army high command. 

In all, it was a general, four colonels, five other soldiers, all retired, and finally a civilian who, in front of about fifty relatives of the victims, admitted their participation in the murders of 120 young people from the town of Ocaña, mostly men between the ages of 25 and 35 – kidnapped peasants or young people deceived by promises of work.

Former members of the Colombian armed forces speak to the families of the victims during a hearing organized by the JEP in Ocaña, April 26, 2022. AFP - SCHNEYDER MENDOZA

The hearing took place in the university theater of this city of about 100,000 inhabitants, located in the department of Norte de Santander, very close to neighboring Venezuela.

Néstor Guillermo Gutierrez:

Me, I executed, murdered several members of the families who are there.

We lured them with lies, and then we shot them;

we murdered them cruelly, cowardly.

We pointed a gun at them, we pretended it was a fight and they were guerrillas.

We have destroyed these families, tainted their names.

A child without his father, a wife without her sons….

God, forgive me, forgive me.

I am here today, standing to acknowledge the war crimes I have committed, they are crimes against humanity.

I know you're not going to forgive us.

But I hope all of this will lead us to what the victims are asking: never again, never, once and for all.

Definitively. 

The wives, mothers and sisters of the victims will also have been able to hear Brigadier General Paulino Coronado, or even Colonel Rubén Castro, who recognized the existence of a " 

 " among its elements, " 

 » the losses.

The latter asked for forgiveness, acknowledging that he had ordered the death of "

 ".

The families of the victims listen to former members of the Colombian armed forces in Ocaña, April 26, 2022. AFP - SCHNEYDER MENDOZA

The victims were executed in a farm near the barracks of Ocaña, or around.

A practice motivated, according to Judge Catalina Diaz, by an " 

 " to inflate its results in the fight against the guerrillas.

The missionaries received in exchange bonuses, permissions, promotions and medals, detailed the magistrate.

According to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a special tribunal resulting from the historic peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrillas of the FARC, 6,400 civilians were executed between 2002 and 2008. The JEP judges the worst crimes of the conflict , which lasted more than 50 years and caused nine million deaths.

So far, a total of twenty people have admitted their responsibility for these crimes.

#Colombia "We murdered innocent people" 11 soldiers before the #JEP recognize the assassination of peasants whom they pretended to be guerrillas who died in combat.

More than 6000 according to the #JEP between 2002 and 2008 #False #Positive https://t.co/66s8zZwbCy

— Gaymard Veronique (@GaymardV) April 27, 2022

The first sentences must be pronounced during the course of the year.

The 2016 agreement stipulates that those who confess their crimes and allocate reparations to the victims can benefit from alternative sentences to prison.

Last January, eight former FARC leaders themselves admitted their responsibility for the kidnapping of 21,396 people.

With agencies

►The march of the world: In Colombia, a long construction of peace with the FARC

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• Colombia

• Justice

• FARC