In the News July 13

Historic Electoral Victory in Colombia Buoys Hope for Peace

Truth Commission Releases Final Report on Causes and Consequences of Conflict

Colombians watch the release of Truth Commission’s final report on outdoor screens in Bogotá, June 28, 2022.

On June 28 Colombia’s Truth Commission released its Final Report on the causes and consequences of the armed conflict in Colombia at a ceremony in Bogotá. Titled There is a Future Where There is Truth, the report aims to provide a foundation for reconciliation among Colombians and ensure non-repetition of the decades-long social and armed conflict. It makes sweeping recommendations for change in State policies related among other things to the role of security forces, the concept of the “internal enemy,” and the U.S.-backed war on drugs which it said contributed to the degradation and expansion of the conflict into one of total war.

The Report is based on some 27,000 testimonies of victims, militaries, guerrillas, paramilitaries, business people, persons living in exile, and others. It includes testimony from members of the military who confessed to coordinating and ordering over 6,000 false positives — the murdering of innocent civilians who are then passed off as members of the guerrilla.

Among the many sources consulted by the Commission in reaching its conclusions were thousands of declassified U.S. documents gathered and organized by the National Security Archive, a Washington-based non-governmental organization.

The Truth Commission is one of the three institutions that make up the Colombian Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition created under the 2016 peace agreement. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says that since it started functioning in 2018, the Truth Commission has “advocated for the rights of millions of victims — children, women and men who themselves have fought tirelessly to be heard, for their collective and individual stories of suffering and resistance to be made public, and for their rights to be acknowledged and restored. The work of the Truth Commission has highlighted the causes of the conflict and exposed its painful reality.”

By cross-referencing 112 databases, the Truth Commission, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and the Human Rights Violations Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) were able to estimate that between 1958 and 2016, 450,664 people lost their lives in the conflict. The vast majority (80 per cent) were civilians. They also estimate that 45 per cent of these people died at the hands of paramilitaries and includes other crimes such as kidnapping, for which the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were mainly responsible, which claimed 50,770 victims. Likewise, the Report provides figures on forced disappearances and forced displacements, two crimes that figured prominently in the department of Antioquia, with 28,029 and 1,480,596 victims, respectively.

A report in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador summarizes findings of the Truth Commission about who was behind paramilitarism in the country:

“The Truth Commission, in writing of paramilitary networks and alliances in the Findings and Recommendations chapter of the Final Report, vehemently asserts that paramilitarism in Colombia is not a thing of the past. ‘It is a phenomenon that continues to exist and, fueled by a multitude of factors, is one of the central obstacles to progress towards a national peace project.’ According to this entity, there is a network of alliances and relationships between social, political, military and economic sectors.

“Although different judicial processes and Justice and Peace sentences have already demonstrated this [The Justice and Peace Law, 2005 was the legal framework adopted to facilitate the demobilization of paramilitaries in Colombia — TML Ed. Note], the Commission explained that the paramilitary network has included State actors. These are from some sectors of the Armed Forces, the Police, security and intelligence agencies, such as the former DAS [Administrative Department of Security], and political bodies such as Congress, assemblies and councils, among other institutions in the country.” […]

“Salvatore Mancuso [former paramilitary leader — TML Ed. Note] told them that when the guerrillas decided to form the Patriotic Union and they began to reach positions of political power in councils, mayorships and governorships of the country, ‘enormous concern came from the State security institutions and economic associations.(…) The [Patriotic Union] was not exterminated by the Self-Defence Forces, its great victimizer was the Colombian State.’

“In the testimony revealed by the [Truth Commission] they explain that the Self-Defence Forces were the material authors of the crime, but that the orders were received directly from State agencies. These State agencies delivered intelligence reports that said these people had a ‘link with the armed wing of the guerrillas which told them to get rid of those who opposed the establishment of the ideological and political model they had in mind, with fire and sword.'” […]

“Up to 2021, the analysis of the Truth Commission — based on 87 convictions of senators, House representatives and governors for these relations and pacts with the AUC [United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia] — ‘shows the proven and judged involvement of 35 senators and 37 House representatives, as well as 15 governors in 18 of the 32 departments of the country.

“‘The senators, House representatives and governors convicted for their relations, agreements and alliances with paramilitary structures associated with the AUC belonged to twelve political parties and movements that played a leading role in the persistence of the alliances.

“‘These facts pose a profound questioning of the State’s responsibility. None of this took place clandestinely, but in broad daylight and with State institutions functioning supposedly normally,’ reads the document.

“A former member of the Centauros Bloc who spoke to the Truth Commission assures that ‘paramilitarism was not born out of drug trafficking, it was born out of the business class in Colombia. That is to say, they are the people who have their properties in different areas of the country, who were harassed by the guerrillas, who had resources and who also had power. Starting from this point, the Commission tries to explain the relationship between the economic sector and the paramilitaries in Colombia.

“‘Some members of the economic sector involved in paramilitarism have been an integral part of the phenomenon and went beyond being ‘third parties.’ They benefited from the limitation of workers’ rights and those of the populations where their companies were located, the attack on unions, privileged access to resources, the threat to, or elimination of their competition and the degradation of the violence associated with the conflict that, on different occasions, allowed them to fish in troubled waters to make their businesses grow,’ reads that chapter of the Report.

“Sentences handed down under the Justice and Peace Law, 2005 indicated that between 2011 and 2015, 439 business actors related to paramilitary groups were mentioned. Most of the sectors mentioned in sentences were cattle ranching, agribusiness (banana and palm) and the extractive sector (coal and oil). ‘The economic interest in territories, in the accumulation of property and in the use of land has been one of the motives for the armed conflict. Therefore, some companies have played an active role, inducing others to commit crimes or participating directly in their commission,’ concludes the Final Report.”

Colombian President Iván Duque, at the beginning of his term, was not present at the inaugural ceremony of the Truth Commission, nor did he attend the ceremony at which the Final Report was delivered.

President-elect Gustavo Petro, however, did attend and received the report from the Commission’s president, Francisco de Roux. He pledged to make sure the report is disseminated to every corner of the country for people to study its findings and recommendations.

TML Daily, posted July 13, 2022.