By Santiago Díaz Gamboa, EL ESPECTADOR, November 28, 2024
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
The Justices of the JEP and the mothers in the MAFAPO collective read the names of 1,934 victims of extrajudicial executions that took place in Huila, Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Casanare, and the Colombian Caribbean. During the exposition entitled “With Their Boots On”, the families of those who were murdered, and their bodies then presented as guerrillas killed in combat, emphasized that the debate ought not to be about the names of their sons, husbands, and brothers, but also about the names of the members of the military responsible for those staggering crimes.
A total of 1,934 names of victims of extrajudicial executions have been revealed by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). During a symbolic event that bore the name “With Their Boots On”, the mothers and the families remembered some of the people that were murdered and presented as “combat kills” by members of the Colombian Army. They were remembering their loved ones through art, using some rubber boots adorned with touches of color and with the names and surnames of their husbands, their brothers, and their children. It was not one isolated case, as claimed by right-wing politicians who have denied the existence of the statistics determined by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace about the mis-named “false positives” that happened all through the country, namely: 6,402 persons murdered in cold blood between 2002 and 2008. “One single name would be enough for us to deplore what happened,” stressed Justice Alejandro Ramelli, President of the JEP.
The numbers are well-founded. The JEP has explained this repeatedly. It has reviewed hundreds of reports, testimonies, criminal justice proceedings, and even the confessions of parties appearing before the JEP. They have talked their heads off in reporting that the extrajudicial executions were not a tall story that somebody made up, but were a policy that was established in some of the brigades and battalions of Colombia’s Armed Forces in order to demonstrate operational results. These events have caused pain for thousands of mothers who saw their sons leave home with a promise of a job, and then found them in mass graves kilometers away from their homes. These mothers have organized and have been raising their voices for decades to clear their sons’ names because they were called guerrilla fighters in order to justify killing them. They were never part of any armed group.
The names of the nearly 2,000 false positive victims that were revealed are part of the results of the JEP’s investigations, set forth in six orders and two subcases which already have had legal analysis. Some of the women who are part of the Mothers of the False Positives of Colombia (MAFAPO in Spanish) Collective—the ones who organized the exposition that seeks to collect a total of 6,402 boots, to give the families’ memories new meaning—and the Justices Alejandro Ramelli, Catalina Díaz, Óscar Parra, Nadiezhda Henríquez, and José Miller Hormiga, read the names and surnames out loud, the list that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace reveals for the first time. The list includes victims that were murdered in Huila, Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Casanare, and the Colombian Caribbean. “They’re not statistics. They were human beings with families,” said each of the readers at the conclusion of their reading.
A few days ago, Justice Alejandro Ramelli made clear that at no time would they disclose temporarily the names that might eventually be included as victims of extrajudicial executions until the completion of the work of analysis that the Justices are carrying out in macrocase 03. This is not just to protect the investigation, but also to protect the security and respect for the victims’ families. “The 6,402 have names and official identities, and there have been activities that must never be repeated,” the Justice pointed out. His statement was in response to people that have sought disclosure of the names of all the victims that the JEP has identified, as in the case of Senator María Fernanda Cabal, who has openly denied the existence of the false positives, and also of a Representative in the Chamber, close to the Democratic Center Party, who made the same demand after he threw into the trash the rubber boots that the mothers of the victims had installed in the Congress where they were trying to honor the memory of their family members.
The answer to this kind of questioning is unequivocal. Jacqueline Castillo, one of the leaders of MAFAPO, with a list in her hand, read some of the names of the victims. She insisted that the mothers have no reason to publish the names and details about their sons if they don’t wish to. Actually, the fact that the Special Jurisdiction won’t reveal all of the identities also has to do with the decision by the families of those who were murdered. “Our families are not an object, we are not commercializing them, they aren’t for sale (. . .) we don’t have any reason to give out the names of our family members. Why don’t we, as a society, ask that they make public the names of the members of the military who were responsible for killing our sons?” she told the multitude of people that attended the exposition.
The facts are so clear, Justice Ramelli said, that “besides the names and I.D. numbers, the victims know of one individual who is chiefly responsible (. . .) 106 high-ranking officers have been charged and more than 80% of them have admitted their participation. Six retired generals have been charged, and one general (Publio Hernán Mejía) is going to trial.” It’s not for nothing that the JEP Appellate Branch denied the motion to dismiss the charges filed by Retired General Mario Montoya Uribe. He is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged responsibility for more than 130 cases of extrajudicial executions in Antioquia when he was the Commander of the Colombian Army’s 4th Brigade. The charges against him were enough to cause the U.S. Department of State last week to revoke his and his family’s visas for entrance into the United States.
In an interview with this newspaper, Justice Catalina Díaz, who has followed the former General’s case closely and formulated the charges against him, recalled some of the “robust” evidence that exists in Montoya’s file, which is even supported by the testimony of his own subordinates. “The General used violent language that exalted bloodshed to demand resulting “combat kills” by his subordinates. He demanded liters, streams, tank cars, barrels of blood, and he did that every day, permanently, and insistently. He kept emphasizing that the only result that really demonstrated military success was killing, the “combat kill”. They also showed us that there were incentives like medals, decorations, leaves, the medal for distinguished service in public order, vacation plans, elevations of rank, promotions, and other things, but everything depended on the number of “combat kills”.
Justice Díaz also emphasized that during the peak time of extrajudicial executions the concept of “body count”, or the number of kills, was a policy established by the highest ranks of the Colombian military, like Montoya, who saw the “kills” as the only kind of result for the war on the insurgents. Those facts were also denied by the Democratic Center Party. In a letter they sent to the JEP, they insisted that the number of executions “lacks documentary support”. Responding to the group headed by Ex-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez—in whose administrations most of the killings were registered—the JEP sent a letter this week, reiterating that the refusal to acknowledge the facts of what happened could “commit acts of revictimization.” Without going further, and echoing that response, Justice Ramelli pointed out during the exposition “the weeping of a mother in mourning ought to be sufficient to understand that using the weapons of the government against innocent citizens is illegal (. . .) So it’s incomprehensible that there’s a public debate about how many were killed and not about how. The question isn’t the number. That’s an immoral question.”
The voices of the victims
Jacqueline Castillo, a representative of the MAFAPO group, told EL ESPECTADOR that even though the path to the truth has suffered obstacles, these actions of memory are a tribute to their children. “Twenty days ago, we placed that exposition in the Congress, where they violated our memorial boots, just like our family members were wretchedly murdered 16 years ago and thrown to the trash in body bags, into common graves. That Congressional Representative did exactly the same thing with our memorial.” In her view, there are still more unknown truths to come from the people appearing before the JEP. “We will never know the full and complete truth. But we will never allow these deeds to be forgotten (. . .) we are a country without memory, and if we allow this to die, in ten or fifteen years, it could happen again.”
Flor Hilda Hernández, is the mother of Elkin Hernández, who disappeared in Soacha on January 13, 2008. His body was found months later in Ocaña, in Norte de Santander Department. She told this newspaper that “even though some people have wanted to ignore us, throwing the history of our children into the garbage, we are here speaking for them, because they are not here. We are in a struggle to keep our children’s names in purity always (. . .) For us there is no complete truth to come from those who are appearing before the JEP. They are only telling what suits them, and that is making our souls sadder.”
Blanca Nubia Monroy lost her son, Julian Oviedo, in March of 2008. In her view, there are still only half-truths coming from those appearing before the JEP. She admits that there is an effort by the Armed Forces to emphasize the dignity of the victims. “Some of them decorated my son’s grave; it was a very beautiful action. It took me back to 2008 when I said good-bye to my son at that grave, in that hole (. . .) some of the soldiers are humble kids that were forced to do things they didn’t want to do, maybe, but the high-ranking officers that have come to appear before the JEP to obtain a benefit that they don’t deserve, that’s why we’re hoping they’re convicted.”
Once more the mothers of the victims of these State crimes have lifted their voices, on this occasion, to name the 1,934 people that were murdered in cold blood so that they could be presented as “combat kills”. “As each name was read out, I felt a dagger in my heart,” said Jacqueline Castillo in a breaking voice. These revelations are based on the investigations that led to the figure of 6,402 extrajudicial executions. They were not made up by somebody; they have been properly sustained. The victims are not just numbers. They have a family. They have a name. And they also have mothers who, for their children, have their boots on.