Category: Sin categoría

When the degradation of the armed conflict reached its peak, most of Colombian society preferred to look the other way or they had to do so in order to move forward in the face of impotence. As the countryside drowned in blood and was forcibly depopulated by the guns of different groups claiming to protect the people and fight for a better country, indifference grew and many turned their backs on this reality. The reaction was similar with selective assassinations and attacks with all kinds of explosives in cities and populated centers.

However, the country is less than a year away from facing an uncomfortable mirror: the truth about how it came to have almost 9.2 million victims and with records as absurd as counting more disappeared people than several dictatorships in the south of the continent combined, when it has always lived in a supposedly solid democracy.

The starting point of that gigantic undertaking is Decree 588 of 2017, which gave life to the Truth Clarification Commission (CEV), as part of the implementation of the Peace Agreement reached by the Colombian State with the extinct FARC guerrillas. From that moment on, eleven commissioners and their work teams began to travel around the country to listen to victims of all armed actors, perpetrators from all sides, social organizations, political leaders and to dig through thousands of documents. 

It is a complex task due to the number of people to consult and the dimension of cases to document. As if that were not enough, the violence has been reactivated in some regions of the country and sectors that do not want their past to be scrutinized have threatened both victims and perpetrators not to talk. And, in the middle, the polarization and the political environment that try to delegitimize the institutionalism created by the Peace Accord have played against the Commission. To all this must be added the Covid-19 pandemic that slowed down its field work.

Despite all these adversities, the CEV continued to fulfill its mandate and different protagonists of the armed conflict approached it to tell their truth. Thus, up to last October, it heard 27,006 people and received 922 reports from victims, civil society organizations and state institutions, which give an account of serious facts of the armed conflict.

It also held 13 Truth Encounters and 13 Dialogues for Non-Repetition in different regions of the country, with more than 13,000 participants from various social sectors, including victims, perpetrators, public officials, academic experts, businessmen, among others. It also listened to the five presidents of the Republic who occupied the Casa de Nariño between 1990 and 2018, to hear their version of the armed conflict and the decisions they took to address it.

All of this work is being decanted in the so-called Final Report, with which the Commission will explain the causes of the armed conflict, its impacts and will issue a series of recommendations so that these events are not repeated again and the country achieves reconciliation. The document was to be presented on November 28, when its mandate ended, but the Constitutional Court, accepting the request of victims’ organizations and human rights defenders, extended the publication deadline until June of next year, because the pandemic disrupted its work schedule.

The road to the truth

There are high hopes for the CEV’s work. Most victims’ collectives and human rights organizations highlight the fact that its members approached them openly to listen to them and they had the opportunity to participate extensively in the construction of the Final Report.

Jorge*, a spokesperson for the National Victims’ Roundtable, created by Law 1448 of 2011 -also known as the Victims’ Law-, to represent those affected by the armed conflict and have dialogue with the State, considers that, in general terms and with all the difficulties, the Commission has done a good job and they hope that it will end up fulfilling the mission entrusted by the Peace Agreement.

“We hope that the Final Report fulfills the expectations of the victims and is not manipulated, that it really generates truth. That truth implies that all the affectations that we suffered are recognized without any distinction and that all those who participated in the armed conflict are consulted. Hopefully, the work of the Commission will allow us to know all those who were behind the scenes moving the war”, summarizes this spokesman, who asked for his name to be withheld.

For her part, Adriana Arboleda, spokesperson for the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice), highlights the fact that the Commission is trying to turn the truth of the armed conflict into a public good so that society as a whole understands its importance. And she places special emphasis on the Encounters for the Truth, to understand the role of the victims and make their resistance processes visible.

Regarding the Final Report, she points out that Movice has high expectations regarding the responsibility of the institutions in the armed conflict: “It must recognize that there is state criminality and that the state has acted as an actor, violating human rights; that this has been part of strategies and policies, and not of isolated events or bad apples”.

She also suggests that it reflects the support that paramilitarism had. “It must be recognized that it has been a state policy and a strategy to annihilate social processes of any kind; it must also address the role of a certain business sector with the paramilitary strategy and the protection of the interests of certain economic sectors to accumulate wealth and land”, she requires.

For these reasons, she asks the CEV to build a deep truth that goes beyond the actors in confrontation because “it would be very frustrating for us a report that is, as other Truth Commissions in the world have done, simply based on the theory of the two demons: that says that everyone here was very bad and that everyone committed great crimes, without delving into the causes, consequences, impacts and damages they generated”.

Jaqueline Rentería, representative of the Association of Mothers of Victims of False Positives (Mafapo), which is calling for justice for the murder of civilians, mostly young people of limited means who under false pretenses were taken to other regions of the country, where they were killed by members of the National Army and presented as guerrillas killed in combat to obtain benefits in their military career, highlights the efforts to achieve reconciliation through the construction of truth.

“At the end of October, we had a private meeting through the Commission with a sergeant and a colonel who are directly involved in our cases. There we were able to hear their testimonies and learn about the pressure within the Army to show results. We were very anxious and they were very cautious, but in the end, things flowed and we learned many details that we had not heard in their hearings”, she says.

In addition, she emphasizes that actions like this can serve to pave the way for reconciliation: “The idea is that the compromisers do some work as a measure of restoration, that we can work and walk together for a better future for our youth and the country. We cannot remain with hatred because in that way we are not contributing to anything. We have to reconcile; we have to forgive and we have to move forward to achieve a better future”.

In Mafapo they ask the CEV Final Report, as a measure of satisfaction, to allow them to know the truth that has eluded them for years: to know who are the direct perpetrators of these crimes.

“It is very frustrating that they spoke with former President Uribe and he says he does not know where the 6,402 ‘false positives’ documented by the JEP came from. We need those who appear before the JEP to contribute to the clarification and not give merits to such important people who did not provide the truth,” said Rentería.

Truth with a differential approach

The Afro-descendant and indigenous communities consider that the greatest advances in the implementation of the Peace Agreement are to be found in the institutions that make up the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition.

They emphasize that they were consulted in the creation of the working protocols of the Truth Commission, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Unit for the Search for the Disappeared. They are pleased that specific units have been created to guarantee that the ethnic vision is present in their work and that Afro and indigenous people are in important positions in the three units.

Richard Moreno, coordinator of the Afro-Colombian Peace Council (Conpa) and member of the Interethnic Solidarity Forum Chocó (Fisch), maintains that the Final Report must reflect the structural causes of the armed conflict and its disproportionate consequences in ethnic territories, indicating the intellectual and material authors and who benefited from the serious crisis suffered by the native peoples.

For Feliciano Valencia, indigenous Nasa and senator of the Republic for the Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement (MAIS), it is necessary that the CEV report account for the collective impacts of the conflict on identity, self-government, autonomy of the peoples and territory, that is, “the indigenous collective subject”.

Furthermore, “to show through different stories that the relationship and the effects on indigenous communities are not only limited to the armed conflict of fifty years ago, but to a tradition of colonization and exclusion of indigenous peoples and communities, because there is a construction of a monocultural and racist nation”.

The CEV has also worked with a gender focus on the horizon. Juliana Ospitia, who has followed it from the organization Sisma Mujer, highlights the first Encounter for Truth that the Commission held in June 2019, dedicated to the sexual violence suffered by women and members of the LGBTI community in the midst of the armed conflict.

And in terms of gender violence, she hopes that these crimes are placed at the same level of importance as other crimes such as kidnapping, forced displacement or extrajudicial executions: “We ask for it because language builds realities and by naming we create actions. If the report manages to give sexual violence the positioning it requires, it will be very important”.

In Sisma Mujer they consider that it is key to express “that all armed actors perpetrated sexual violence; that it is an intentional and systematic practice, which feeds on patriarchy and affects women in a differential way”.

Dots in the road

The Truth Commission is not generally accepted and also has detractors. One of them is the Colombian Federation of Victims of the FARC (Fevcol). Sebastián Velásquez, its legal representative and spokesman, considers it a “fraud”.

“That is a disgrace. Father Francisco de Roux, in all these three years, never gave us, FARC victims, guarantees to tell what happened, while, yes sir, I opened all the doors and all the interlocution to the organizations that socially have been very close to the FARC. And this gentleman continues to insist that he has not had time to build the truth, that it is an accommodated and ideologized truth, and he is asking for more time and more money”, questions Velásquez.

Adel González, lawyer and representative of the White Rose Corporation, which groups 250 women who were recruited as minors by the FARC and denounce multiple crimes committed within the former guerrilla, including sexual violence, indicates that at the beginning they were listened to by the Commission and that some delegates even participated in the first Meeting for the Truth held by that entity, dedicated to victims of sexual and gender violence.

However, she regrets that later they ceased to have contact and that there was no event dedicated to victims of sexual violence in the FARC, as there was for other types of crimes. She also questions the CEV’s failure to focus on specific cases, such as the ones she represents, arguing that there is a large universe of victims and that it cannot treat them individually.

“We must not change history or transform the reality of all that happened. Our organization has been determined to reveal what was going on inside the FARC. The Truth Commission should be called not only to collect the subversion’s disagreements, but also to record the most relevant facts that humanity cannot allow to be repeated”, she says.

The claims against the Truth Commission do not come exclusively from sectors that question its legitimacy and doubt its impartiality. Organizations that accept its work regret that, due to time limitations and methodological issues, its investigators did not reach several rural areas to take testimony from more victims.

In this regard, the president of the CEV, the priest Francisco de Roux, points out that the work of the entity has been stripped of political interests and recognizes that they did everything possible within the scope of their abilities to talk to as many people as possible, but “there will always be a totally legitimate dissatisfaction on the part of the victims”. (See here the complete interview with Father De Roux).

He explains: “With each victim, or when we go to jail, we spend one or two days; visiting a victim community in the mountains takes a week. If we were to dedicate one minute to the 9 million victims, it would take us 17 years, working 24 hours a day, to hear them all. This claim is perfectly legitimate, but I can say: we have honestly received with all our heart all those who have come to the Commission, we have gone out to look for them, we have gone to the places where it seemed to us those things were the hardest”.

Another recurrent criticism is the lack of contrast in public spaces when they listened to important personalities related to the armed conflict, as happened with former presidents Juan Manuel Santos, Álvaro Uribe Vélez and Andrés Pastrana, and the extradited paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso.

In this regard, Father De Roux explains that everything will be contrasted in the Final Report: “We are not a legal entity. We cannot force anyone to come to the Commission, we invite and give people the possibility to speak. We ask questions, but we do not ask them in such a way that we seek to force them to admit their guilt in public before the country. If in a legal process a person cannot be forced to testify against himself, much less can we”.

And he continues: “In all these public cases we have very long and deep personal preparations. We made a personal visit to Mancuso in prison. A commissioner went to the United States to talk to him and we have 26 hours of detailed recordings. We did not pressure him to say them in public, but they are absolutely important”.

Different sectors are uncertain about the fate of the Final Report once it is published. “It should not be kept in storage; it has to be available for the communities to know it and for the society in general to appropriate it. How to do it? Through pedagogical actions and that is what we are working on from the Colombian Network of Memory Sites,” says historian William Wilches, from the Caquetá Museum, which is one of the 30 initiatives that make up this space of historical memory.

Between June and August of next year, the commissioners will present the report in different regions of the country. In addition, explains De Roux, a Monitoring and Follow-up Committee will be created, which for seven years “will ensure that the recommendations made by the Commission are implemented”.

Finally, the president of the CEV is aware that the Final Report will be criticized by different social sectors because “the truth is a struggle” and hopes that this work will do good for the country. Once published, whoever wishes may consult it, through a cell phone application, all the documents compiled by the Commission, so that “the country can make its own interpretation of what we did, and can continue advancing in the conversation”.

In June of next year, Colombia will stand in front of a mirror that, through multiple voices and a vast documentary review, will reflect the reality it refused to see for a long time. Those involved in the armed conflict will struggle to make their image look as good as possible and that their responsibilities do not tarnish their present, their future or their legacy; but in the end, the country will have the possibility to mend its ways so as not to return to the barbarism and desolation left by more than half a century of war.

*Name changed at the request of the interviewee

“It is not about destroying or shattering the agreements, but it is about making modifications to them,” said Iván Duque Márquez, in January 2018, when he was still a candidate for the Presidency of Colombia and was outlining his critical positions against the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). After being elected, during his mandate and in different opportunities he has tried to trip it up with reforms and demands, but this entity works and shows progress.

At least this is what some sources consulted indicate, whom, beyond the figures and data, recognize that even with delays and in the midst of the harsh socio-political context in which Colombia lives, this transitional jurisdiction is advancing. Others, quite critical, argue that, in principle, the Peace Accord was illegitimate and, therefore, so is everything that derives from it.

The JEP is one of the components of the Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition System (along with the Unit for the Search for Disappeared Persons and the Truth Clarification Commission), enshrined in the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace agreed in Havana, Cuba, between the Colombian State and the extinct FARC guerrillas, and endorsed in Bogota on November 24, 2016.

Its essential purpose is to “satisfy the right of the victims to justice, offer truth to Colombian society, protect the rights of victims, contribute to the achievement of a stable and lasting peace and adopt decisions that grant full legal security to those who participated directly or indirectly in the internal armed conflict through the commission of the aforementioned conducts”.

This entity, created with Legislative Act 01 of April 2017, will operate for a maximum of 20 years and has under its responsibility to know and judge the conducts committed prior to December 1, 2016, “due to, on occasion or in direct or indirect relation to the armed conflict, by those who participated in it, especially with respect to conducts considered serious violations of International Humanitarian Law or serious violations of Human Rights”.

After five years of implementation of the Peace Agreement and four years since the entry into force of the JEP, its work oscillates between the support of victims’ organizations and international bodies, and the opposition of those who believe that it is a model of justice “tailor-made” for the former FARC. There is still a long way to go and intense debates to be heard.

Voices of support

Adriana Arboleda, spokesperson for the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), highlights that the JEP has made significant decisions, such as the endorsement of precautionary measures for the protection of 17 places where bodies of victims of forced disappearance are presumed to be located. This decision has allowed it to articulate with the Unit for the Search of Persons Reported Missing (UBPD) in order to provide a more effective response to the families.

In one of its latest reports released by the Kroc Institute of the University of Notre Dame, overseer of the implementation of the Peace Accord, it highlights actions such as the accreditation of five people from the LGBT community in Case 05 (on the humanitarian situation in several municipalities of northern Cauca); the accreditation of the Communist Party as a victim in Case 06 (referring to the victimization of members of the Patriotic Union); the taking of actions to guarantee the participation of victims in the processes; and the launching of the protocol for the relationship with the Own Justice of black, afro-Colombian, raizal and palenqueras people and communities.

The latter is endorsed by Rosana Mejía, senior counselor of the Association of Community Councils of Northern Cauca (ACONC). The JEP, according to her, “has recognized the role of the self-government mechanisms and we have been taken into account, especially in Case 05, in which we are the community councils of northern Cauca and some from Valle. We cannot deny these things. Ethnic participation has been broad”.

On their behalf, in the third follow-up report of the Peace Agreement, published in August of this year, the Attorney General’s Office highlights the organizational development of the JEP, the processes being carried out in the Amnesty or Pardon and Definition of Legal Situation chambers, the progress in the seven macro-cases opened so far, the precautionary and protection measures, the participation of victims in the context of the pandemic, the gender focus at the institutional level and the articulation with the ordinary justice system.

The legal team of the Coalition Against the Involvement of Children and Young People in the Armed Conflict in Colombia (COALICO) considers that this transitional jurisdiction is "the best opportunity that the Colombian State has to combat the impunity that, historically, has characterized investigations into the illegal recruitment of children in the context of the armed conflict", and they say that they regard “with good eyes" the work already done, because it has issued judicial actions that in other conditions would be unimaginable and it helps to the construction of truth as reparation and as a guarantee of non-repetition.

The Technical Secretariat (TS) of the international verification component of the Final Agreement, formed by the Center for Research and Popular Education (Cinep) and the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (Cerac), highlights that the methodology used by the JEP is allowing, among other things, to demonstrate the interconnections between the macro-cases, regardless of time and place, and the patterns of violence, the responsibilities of different participants, the recognition of the stories and the participation of the victims. (See report)

This is exemplified by decisions taken in cases 01 (on hostage-taking and other serious deprivations of liberty committed by the FARC-EP) and 03 (referring to deaths illegitimately presented as casualties in combat by agents of the State).

In the first case, eight members of the former FARC secretariat were charged with crimes against humanity, including slavery, recently added, and the registration of 21,396 victims of deprivation of liberty; and in the second case, ten military and one civilian were charged with war crimes of homicide in protected individual, crimes against humanity of murder and forced disappearance, the recognition of at least 6,402 victims of extrajudicial executions and of a criminal policy and widespread systematic practice.

"We have been quite satisfied with the work that the JEP has done. We have had participation, which did not happen through the ordinary justice system. When they gave that figure of 6,402 documented cases, it was able to demonstrate that they were not isolated cases," says Jacqueline Castillo, representative of Mothers of False Positives of Soacha and Bogota (MAFAPO).

In addition, the TS registered the accreditation of five soldiers, in Case 05, as victims of antipersonnel mines, and the submission of 12,993 people to the jurisdiction (9,810 FARC-EP, 3,029 from the Public Forces, 142 State agents other than the Public Forces and 12 from social protest).

For Bernardita Pérez, professor at the Law School of the University of Antioquia and constitutional lawyer, all the efforts made by the JEP are important, especially those related to the macro-cases.

To reinforce her argument, this jurist compares the South African peace process, which took place in 1994, with that of Colombia, emphasizing some figures achieved so far and which she describes as "extraordinary" results: more than 50,000 judicial decisions adopted; 13,258 people who signed a commitment and submission act; 17,489 judicial decisions adopted in the Amnesty or Pardon Chamber; and 19,641 judicial decisions adopted in the Chamber for the Definition of Legal Situations.

Faced with these figures, Camila Moreno, director in Colombia of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), affirms that what can be seen is a reflection of the great challenge that the jurisdiction faces in addressing the massiveness of the facts and the actors.

What is at stake," she says, "is the capacity of the Colombian state, through the JEP, to guarantee strategic prosecution, when we are talking about hundreds of perpetrators, thousands of victims, thousands of events that will never be clarified one by one; and this is very important to reiterate and to make it part of the pedagogy that the JEP must continue to do, (because) it is what will be prosecuted, not the individual events, because if that were the case, we would probably need, who knows, many hundreds years to achieve it".

Despite the political context difficulties and the complexity of creating an institution in Colombia under the Peace Treat, Moreno considers that the work of the JEP is positive, especially because there are already substantive decisions, such as indictments, and because there has been a good understanding of the process by the victims, the FARC participants and the low-ranking members of the military.

In the midst of the difficulties, the progress of the JEP has received ample gestures of support and legitimacy. One of the most important came recently from Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who suspended the preliminary examination on human rights violations that the court had been open on Colombia for 17 years after considering that the processes being carried out by the transitional justice system against former members of the FARC and the security forces are on the right track to guarantee justice for the victims of the armed conflict.

Not all that glitters is gold

"Restitution for the victims is at the heart of the General Agreement for the termination of the conflict and the construction of a stable and lasting peace", is the spirit of the Peace Agreement and, a fortiori, of the JEP.

But how do the victims of the former FARC feel? Have they been listened to? Have they been taken into account? Different civil society organizations have critical responses in this regard.

One of them is the Colombian Association of Retired Officers of the Military Forces (ACORE). Its president, retired Colonel John Marulanda, considers that the JEP, the Truth Commission and the UBPD are bodies "derived from an agreement that was rejected by a majority of Colombians in a broad, clear and democratic vote. Therefore, they lack legitimacy, even if they are legalized".

Like ACORE, the Colombian Federation of Victims of the FARC (FEVCOL), represented by Sebastián Velásquez, also believes that the Peace Accord and the JEP are illegitimate and questions several of its decisions, among them why and what for the inclusion of extrajudicial executions, the victimization of UP members and the limited territorial scope by limiting other cases to a few municipalities.

"As if the FARC had not been in all of Colombia," affirms Velásquez, and argues that the elements of truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition of the JEP and the Integral System are not being fulfilled.

Regarding the gender approach, Juliana Ospina, member of Corporación Sisma Mujer, assures that they continue to encounter the barrier of stereotypes and limiting beliefs: "That was the least serious", "this is not so serious", "let's put it over there", "let's put it here in the region", "let's put it here as something else".

Statements like these, she warns, do not allow progress to be made in the area of sexual violence. In addition, she doubts whether the JEP is recognizing the existence of these crimes and whether it is overlooking the responsibility of some of the participants in cases such as these.

Another critical voice comes from the White Rose Corporation, made up of about 250 women recruited by the former FARC who constantly denounce acts of violence they suffered in the guerrilla ranks.

"The first thing I must say is that the JEP is a judicial body that is rigged. The term 'victims' in the Peace Agreement is a sophism of distraction and we have found ourselves with a problem and that is that these FARC criminals have not complied with the Agreement, to the extent that they have not gone to recognize their crimes, especially the crimes of recruitment and, more especially, the crimes of sexual abuse and torture that many of them suffered", says Adel Gonzalez, lawyer of the White Rose Corporation.

And to back up his criticism he details that they have presented close to 30 individual criminal complaints before the JEP, but they have only recognized them as a mere request for accreditation of victims; they have also requested the interrogation and testimony of several members of the former Secretariat of the extinct FARC because the victims point them out, with their own names, as their sexual aggressors, but this jurisdiction, for now, has refused; and that the Rosa Blanca organization has not received economic support from anyone, not even from civil organizations and much less from the JEP and its bodies, to at least collect evidentiary material.

According to González, the latter has caused the burden of proof to be reversed "and, then, it is up to the victims to demonstrate that 'Timochenko' (Rodrigo Londoño) raped; to demonstrate that 'El Paisa' (Hernán Darío Velásquez) raped, to demonstrate that the other scoundrel bandit 'Romaña' (Henry Castellanos) raped, to demonstrate that, for example, 'Sandino' was the sponsor of the abortions".

The references of this lawyer point to Rodrigo Londoño, known in the extinct FARC as 'Timoleón Jiménez' or 'Timochenko', maximum leader of that illegal armed group and who led the negotiation of the Peace Agreement with the Colombian State; Hernán Darío Velásquez, alias 'El Paisa' and Henry Castellanos, alias 'Romaña', two of the most ruthless guerrillas who decided to remain in arms; and Judith Simanca Herrera, also known as 'Victoria Sandino', current Senator of the Republic for the Comunes Party, created after the Havana pacts.

From ACONC, counselor Mejía states that the jurisdiction has lacked forcefulness in conducting the hearings to ensure that there is an expression of truth, because the participants have omitted and denied obvious realities, such as that in their ranks there were Afro people, or having participated in some events that occurred in their territory, which they, in their organization, have reported.

And what about the security forces?

Concerning the role carried out by the agents of the State as related parties, Arboleda, from MOVICE, explains that they have asked the jurisdiction to take measures against the "denialist and justifying strategy of the military," because they have shown that many of them, who were already sentenced to high penalties, agreed to the JEP only with the idea of being released, but without providing the truth.

Thus, according to her, if they do not commit themselves to the truth, to the recognition of their responsibility, to the rights of the victims, which is what the legislative act that gave life to the JEP establishes, they should be expelled and their acquired rights, such as parole, should be revoked.

In the same vein, Castillo, from MAFAPO, points out that, although the victims of 'false positives' are clear that the military have not provided the full truth and that, according to other members of the military, "they are still living under pressure", they are hopeful that in the near future the JEP will make decisions on whether or not these participants will continue to be covered by this transitional mechanism.

Future of the JEP

Various social and academic organizations insist on calling on the JEP to open new specific macro-cases on crime, including sexual and gender-based violence, anti-personnel mines, displacement and confinement, forced disappearance, violence against ethnic and indigenous communities, seizure of populations, drug trafficking, relations between paramilitaries and state agents, and FARC crimes at the territorial level.

In addition, they expect the jurisdiction to continue working on accelerating the processes, achieving greater participation of the victims and effectively articulating with the other components of the Integral System, as well as within the jurisdiction and with other state entities, such as the Victims Unit.

In particular, the TS considers it necessary for the JEP to present more substantive decisions on the macro-cases, to avoid any type of alteration to the pillars of its restorative justice model, to advance in the processes to implement the work, projects and activities with restorative content, and to resolve the requests of former FARC combatants who continue to be deprived of their liberty.

On the other hand, attorney Pérez insists on the importance and urgency of communicating the progress and pedagogical strategies of the JEP in a constant and effective manner, through the jurisdiction's own communication channels, which do not respond to the dynamics of the traditional media, linked, above all, to advertorials. In this way, their work will be more accessible to the public and will cease to be "meek, discreet and silent".

And, finally, the victims' organizations expect, in addition to their full reparation, a firm hand from the jurisdiction and a full truth from all those who appear, regardless of whether they are former FARC combatants or agents of the security forces.

*At press time, Verdad Abierta did not receive a response from Judge Eduardo Cifuentes of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

“While in the country there was talk of peace and the implementation of agreements to achieve the non-repetition of the violence, in our territories soon returned the threats, selective murders and massacres,” laments Juan Manuel Camayo, coordinator of the Tejido de Defensa de la Vida, of the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Cauca Norte (ACIN), in charge of monitoring the human rights violations suffered by the Nasa people.

Between late 2016 and early 2017, the FARC laid down their weapons in compliance with the Peace Agreement and it was expected that the State would take, in a comprehensive manner, the areas controlled for years by the former guerrillas, with development and security, to fill that power vacuum, avoid new cycles of violence and settle the historical debts suffered by the communities hardest hit by the armed conflict.

However, criminality was faster than institutionalism. Hence, the situation described by Camayo is not exclusive to his region: it was replicated in different departments of the country.

Armed groups that used to border with the former FARC, guerrillas who distanced themselves from the peace process and men who took up arms again after demobilization, won the race and became involved in new disputes over territorial control. Those who are paying the price are the peasant, black and indigenous communities, to whom the Peace Treaty made the promise of non-repetition of the violence, but five years later, it has still not been fulfilled.

This is how Michel Forst, then UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, explained it in his report on the situation in Colombia in 2019: “The demobilization of the FARC-EP did not entail the mobilization and comprehensive state presence in the areas previously under their control, which allowed the reorganization of power at the hands of illegal armed groups and criminal groups around illicit economies, in the face of the inaction and/or absence of the State.”

Communities in Nariño, Cauca, Chocó, Antioquia, Córdoba, Bolívar, Putumayo, Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, Arauca and northern Santander were able to rest from the din produced by the detonation of rifles and explosives during the final stage of the peace negotiations that took place in Cuba and the first months of implementation of the pact that put an end to a war that lasted more than 50 years.

Between November 2012 and August 2016, delegates of then president Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) and the former FARC negotiated a six-point agenda to establish the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace. During that time, forced displacements, confinements, massacres and civilian deaths due to clashes between armed groups decreased.

The only indicator that increased in that period were the threats and they are related to the dialogues: the meetings that victims of the conflict had with the negotiators in Havana awakened a wave of massive threats.

The paradoxical thing is that, starting in 2017, just when the implementation of the Peace Agreement and the policies of the so-called post-conflict began, the figures of violence grew again. This fluctuation is reflected in different indicators consolidated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The de-escalation and intensification of the conflict are also reflected in indicators over time. During the peace negotiations, confrontations between the security forces and the country’s largest armed group decreased, generating a positive effect. Once demobilized, they increased due to territorial disputes involving old and new armed groups. Most of the indicators and cases consolidated by OCHA, in the year 2017 register the turning point towards escalation of violence.

Regarding this panorama, Andrés Cajiao, researcher of the Area of Conflict Dynamics of the Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), points out that, since the FARC laid down their weapons, the country has gone through three different stages.

The first one is the gestation of new armed groups. It happened on account of those leaders of the former FARC who distanced themselves from the peace process before the signing of the Agreement, as happened with Miguel Botache Santilla, alias ‘Gentil Duarte’, who operates in the regions of Meta and Guaviare.

The next stage is about territorial reconfiguration, that took place between 2018 and 2019, when “important resurgences are seen in different areas of the country, such as Nariño Pacific, Cauca, Catatumbo, the expansion of the ELN to the south of Chocó and the intentions of the Gaitanistas (AGC) to occupy Chocó from Urabá.”

The last stage takes place at the end of 2019, with the resolution of some disputes: “The ELN remains dominant in Catatumbo, although there is a dispute in Tibú; Arauca stabilized; in the south of Meta the Jorge Briceño Bloc remained under the command of ‘Gentil Duarte’ and ‘Iván Mordisco'”. However, Cajiao clarifies that intense confrontations persist in Nariño, Chocó, Cauca, Bolívar and Bajo Cauca Antioqueño.

New scenario

Following the demobilizations of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and the FARC guerrillas, which occurred between 2003 and 2006, and 2016 and 2017, respectively, the dynamics of the armed conflict in Colombia changed substantially. It went from a conflict of large armed structures, with a strong vertical hierarchy and national scope, to several groups with local and regional scope.

“We have called the current situation focused conflicts or focused armed confrontations, to distinguish it from the previous decade, when there was a fairly generalized war situation. Now there is a change, which went through a period of de-escalation after 2012 and we entered into low-intensity conflicts,” explains Camilo González Posso, president of the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz).

This study center published last October 4^th the report The Focus of Conflict in Colombia, in which it characterized the current armed groups and their actions. Among them are 22 structures of groups that emerged after the demobilization of the AUC and are known as narco-paramilitaries, 30 post-demobilization structures of the FARC and eight war fronts of the ELN guerrilla.

This investigation records that during 2020 the neo-paramilitary groups were active in 291 municipalities, the rearmed and dissident FARC in 123, and the ELN in 211. The investigation found eight focal points of confrontation. 

In this regard, the report states that these "territorial focal points are not new conflict scenarios, but within them the dynamics were transformed by the armed reconfiguration and, with it, the levels of violence or the interconnections between them.

Gonzalez points out that the current situation is the result of the difficulties of the transition to the post-conflict: "With the signing of the Peace Agreement, structural problems of disputes over territory and power were not resolved through arms: it became part of a model to use arms to make wealth and retain power. These disputes are very strong and continue to have an impact over 300 municipalities in the country".

On the other hand, Kyle Johnson, researcher at the Conflict Responses Foundation (Core), states that the armed conflict has a smaller scope, is being degraded and criminalized: "It is going to be more and more local and regional. I don't think Colombia is going to have a conflict with actors who think about threatening the power of the central state and will stay at the local level”.

Regarding the degradation, he states that it is linked to the increase in the intensity of fights for territorial control: "Within these disputes there is a degradation in terms of the repertoire of violence against the civilian communities, which are harsher than those that existed before the peace negotiation with the FARC. That is why there is an increase in confinements and murders."

One of the main reasons Johnson attributes to this degradation is the youth and lack of training of those in charge of the illegal armed groups. "The main actors are younger than they were with the FARC and ELN 15 years ago. They are young people who grew up in a very different context, in another international moment and in another local culture. They don't have that root of peasant struggle," he says.

Camayo, from ACIN, agrees with this approach and maintains that the post-conflict has been much more serious than the armed conflict: "What the Peace Agreement did, was to divide armed structures and now we don't know with whom to talk about humanitarian issues. There is no way to have a dialogue and they do not respect the communities or their authorities”.

Unfortunately, the facts support this statement, since in northern Cauca, the decision of the indigenous reserves to exercise their right to territorial autonomy and self-government, after the demobilization of the former FARC, has cost the lives of dozens of members of the Indigenous Guard and ancestral authorities, as they opposed the presence of armed groups and the exploitation of illegal income.

Six FARC dissidents are present in Cauca, which broke away from the 6th and 30th fronts: the Jaime Martinez Column, the Dagoberto Ramos Column, the Carlos Patiño Front, the Rafael Aguilera Front, the Ismael Ruiz Front and the Diomer Cortes Front. In addition, there is the ELN and threats are constantly circulating in the name of the 'Aguilas Negras' and the AGC, although the police alleges that there is no presence of paramilitary groups in the region.

The effects of the post-conflict reconfiguration or disorganization of armed groups are also being felt in Catatumbo. Wilfredo Cañizares, director of the Progress Foundation, which monitors human rights violations in the border region of North of Santander, points out that before 2016 the control of each armed group was differentiated.

"After the agreements, there are today three groups of dissidents in the region: the 33rd Front, which the government says works with 'Gentil Duarte'; the Second Marquetalia, of 'Ivan Marquez'; and the 41st Front, of 'Otoniel'. From having the 33rd Front clearly established with its domain and interests, we went from having three dissident FARC groups in the region. There are tensions between the 33rd and the 41st, but fortunately the confrontation between the EPL and the ELN has decreased”.

Five years after the signing of the Peace Accord, the communities that have suffered the most from the war feel hopeless. This is the opinion of Richard Moreno, member of the Chocó Interethnic Solidarity Forum (Fisch), a space in which black and indigenous communities are promoting a humanitarian agreement for that region, which suffers constant forced displacements and confinements due to the confrontations between the AGC, the ELN and the Public Forces.

"The signing of the Agreement generated some levels of tranquility that we had not had, but it lasted about one or two years. We believe that the national government intentionally did not exercised control, with social investment, the territories left by the FARC and allowed the recycling and reconfiguration of armed actors, the same ones that were already there and others that have arrived. Today we continue with the same absence and denial of the State, the same apathy of the local governments and the communities continue to suffer the worst consequences.

And the authorities?

In the midst of the current spiral of violence, in which year after year the murders of social leaders and former FARC combatants in the process of reincorporation, massacres, forced displacements and confinements increase, the Ministry of Defense reports figures with which it refutes the criticisms made by different social sectors.

In response to a query from VerdadAbierta.com, that government portfolio asserts that in order to consolidate and protect the regions where the former FARC were, the National Police carried out 866 operations between November 24^th, 2016 and last September 30^th, and the Military Forces maintain eleven joint "major operations" throughout the country.

Furthermore, that, in order to comply with the objectives of the Defense and Security Policy, it has executed the Strategic Plan Stabilization and Consolidation Victoria, the War Plan Victoria Plus and the current War Plan Bicentennial Heroes of Freedom.

It also presents achievements in terms of drug seizures, destruction of narcotics processing laboratories, eradication of hectares cultivated with coca and captures related to illegal mining, which are the two main sources of financing for criminal groups.

On the other hand, it highlights that the operations of the Public Forces allowed the capture, killing and demobilization of 27,281 members of the ELN, the 'Clan del Golfo' (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia), 'Los Caparros', 'Los Pelusos' and 'Los Puntilleros', among other illegal armed groups. It also reports that, in the last five years, 358 uniformed members of the Armed Forces and the National Police were wounded and 98 were killed.

If the state security forces have acted consistently in the so-called post-conflict period, as these figures reveal, why is violence soaring in some regions?

Andrés Cajiao, of FIP, states that the role of the security forces has been differentiated and has had different effects. According to his analysis, it has managed to prevent the strengthening of some FARC dissidents, as in the south of Tolima, but its actions have also generated criminal disorder: "By attacking major leaders, the groups fragment and new scenarios of violence are generated”.

And he adds: "In general, the state has been reactive. It puts out large fires when violence and homicides rise drastically, deploying more force. The security forces have been slow to adapt to the new logic of confrontation, where there are no longer direct confrontations and the groups try to be less visible”.

Currently the armed groups have a greater capacity for redrawing, Cajiao maintains, and asserts that "they are no longer those supremely hierarchical structures, in which eliminating a leader implies a strong structural change or a difficult to replacement. They are increasingly more dynamic and horizontal”.

Jorge Restrepo, professor at the Javeriana University and director of the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (Cerac), considers that the Peace Agreement alone is not enough to respond to the current security problems. For this reason, he argues that it is necessary to reform the security sector for the post-conflict period, as well as the justice system, which lacks measures to deal with organized crime.

"Why are we living in violent times despite the peace process," asks Restrepo. And he answers: "Because the end of the conflict with the FARC was only convenient for the organized crime groups. In that ending of the conflict, the absence of policies against organized crime ended up helping it to reinvent itself and expand. This reorganization process ended up being particularly violent".

The integral application of the Peace Agreement is a demand of different social sectors. They believe that if the Comprehensive Rural Reform, the Comprehensive National Crop Substitution Program (PNIS), the National Commission for Security Guarantees, among other measures, were to advance at the right pace, the outlook would be different.

"Each point that has not been implemented or has been implemented drop by drop has facilitated the recycling of violence. The Peace Treaty cannot be applied little by little because it is comprehensive. Point 3.4, which has to do with security guarantees, has failed because more than 290 ex-combatants have been murdered, but it could also be said that the PNIS was not applied in the first six months and it was key to take power away from the mafias," says Gonzalez, from Indepaz.

At the end of the day, as it happened in the hardest period of the armed conflict, those who bear the consequences are the inhabitants of the countryside, the indigenous reservations and the community councils of the black communities. Once again, they are at the mercy of those who settle on their lands with weapons slung over their shoulders or holstered in their pants.

"The peace process was a failure for those of us who suffered the armed conflict. It did not allow the vision and desires that the communities had: to no longer hear gunshots, to live peacefully with their families and to have peaceful nights dreams. Today that tranquility is not reflected. Parents mourn the recruitment of their children and suffer threats for wanting to rescue them from the armed groups", reproaches with great emotion the indigenous leader Juan Manuel Camayo from the Cauca mountains, where the roaring of the rifles don’t stop.

That was the case and still is for different regions of Colombia, where five years after of the promise of the non-repetition of the violence was confined in the 310 pages of the Final Agreement for the End of the Conflict and the Construction of a Lasting and Stable Peace.