“I deliberate and delivered weapons in order that harmless younger folks with goals … can be turned over and killed and reported as lifeless in fight,” all within the title of “operational outcomes,” retired sergeant Sandro Mauricio Pérez stated in an emotional listening to. “They had been cold-blooded murders.”
The testimonies within the long-awaited listening to marked the highest-level admissions from navy officers implicated within the “false positives” scandal that continues to rock Colombia. It was additionally the primary time that officers have admitted to committing conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity in a tribunal established via a peace settlement, in accordance with judges presiding over Wednesday’s listening to.
The nation’s Particular Jurisdiction for Peace was created in 2017 as a part of the peace cope with the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The peace jurisdiction, which capabilities outdoors of Colombia’s conventional courts, is charged with holding accountable those that dedicated crimes within the battle. However as an alternative of jail time, those that settle for accountability for his or her crimes might face sentences corresponding to home arrest.
At the least 6,402 Colombians had been killed as false enemy combatants between 2002 and 2008, in accordance with the court docket. In July, the peace jurisdiction charged 10 navy leaders, together with a common, within the deaths of not less than 120 of these folks in Catatumbo within the division of Norte de Santander. Most of the victims had been younger males who had been unemployed, homeless or disabled, a few of them lured with the promise of a job alternative.
This week’s listening to supplied the members of the family of victims with a chance to listen to instantly from a few of these in cost, bringing them nearer to a years-long effort to reply a query now painted in murals throughout Colombia: “Who gave the order?”
“We all know that behind you might be huge folks,” stated Carmenza Gómez, a mom whose oldest son died in August 2008. “We would like names.”
However for a number of the moms and relations within the room Wednesday, probably the most anticipated testimony of the day introduced them no nearer to a solution. The best-ranking navy official within the listening to, retired brigadier common Paulino Coronado Gámez, denied ordering, sponsoring or planning the killings “dedicated by males underneath by my command.” But he accepted accountability for failing to place a cease to them. He admitted a failure to foresee the impression of the military’s deal with casualty counts — which he stated was pushed by Gen. Mario Montoya, the U.S.-trained commander who led the military on the peak of the killings.
“I settle for that I didn’t adjust to the primary lesson that they taught me after I entered navy faculty,” he stated. “The commander is answerable for what his subordinates do and cease doing.”
All through the two-day listening to, navy officers and one civilian admitted to serving to plan or perform kidnappings and killings in response to expectations to fulfill physique counts as measures of success. On Tuesday, one colonel, Santiago Herrera, admitted to pressuring his subordinates by providing rewards and creating competitions between models for the best variety of outcomes.
“This unlucky prison pact was fashioned by a number of the members of the navy unit underneath my command,” Herrera stated, “as I used to be pressuring my subordinates to acquire the outcomes by way of casualties in fight at any price.”
Pérez, the sergeant, regarded into the eyes of members of the family within the room as he learn off the names of victims and at occasions appeared to carry again tears.
“My lack of affection and respect for human life, for human dignity, led me to finish up turning into a assassin,” he stated. “A monster.”
