• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Colombia

Colombia: The Army's Extrajudicial Killings Are Underestimated

  • A woman protests against extrajudicial killings, Bogota, Colombia, 2021.

    A woman protests against extrajudicial killings, Bogota, Colombia, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @ELTIEMPO

Published 18 February 2021
Opinion

6,402 people were killed between 1988 and 2014. Most of them were poor farmers whose corpses the military presented as guerrillas fallen in combat. 

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) Wednesday revealed the Colombian Army extrajudicially executed more innocent people presented as combat casualties than it officially reported.

RELATED:

Seven Killed in Colombia’s 60th Massacre of 2020

"From 1988 to 2014, 6,402 innocent people, known as 'false positives', were killed. This figure represents 4,154 victims more than those reported," the JEP assured after leading an inquiry into the deaths illegitimately presented as combat casualties by state agents.

In 2018, the JEP had access to the records of the Attorney General's Office, which reported that only 2,248 innocent people were victims of illegal executions.

At least 66 percent of the 6,402 victims were killed in 10 departments, including Antioquia, the Caribbean Coast, Norte de Santander, Huila, Casanare, and Meta, territories cataloged as "critical" regarding 'false positives'.

Seventy-seven percent of the victims were executed from 2002 to 2008. Norte de Santander alone reported 82 percent of the victims in that period, while Antioquia registered 25 percent of the extra-judicial killings.

The JEP revelations allow Justice authorities to present charges against the mid-and high-ranking military officers who ordered the extrajudicial executions.

Most of the victims were poor farmers whose corpses the military presented as guerrillas fallen in combat. This was part of psychological operations aimed at displaying "victories" in the war against the insurgency.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.