EFE report in YAHOO!NEWS, December 6, 2024
https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/juez-ordena-congresista-colombiano-ofrecer-211759738.html
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
This Friday a judge in Bogotá ordered the Colombian Congressman to beg pardon publicly to the Mothers of Soacha and the victims of the executions, known as “false positives”, executions of civilians by members of the Colombian Army, because he had revictimized them by actions that disrespected their memorial.
Branch 30 of the Bogotá Circuit Court made the decision in response to a civil rights action filed by the Association of Mothers Victimized by the False Positives (Mafapo in Spanish). They charged that Polo, a Member of the Chamber of Representatives that holds a specially established seat, had “revictimized” them.
The decision orders the Congressman to beg “pardon from the mothers that make up Mafapo and from the nation as well, and to make the statement before regular communications media of national reach for the actions he performed on November 6 of this year.
On that day, Polo took some boots that had been arranged artistically by Mafapo members and threw them into the trash. They were part of an exposition by Mafapo at the Plaza Nuñez, located between the Presidential Palace and the National Capitol, and were intended as a tribute to the victims of extrajudicial executions who came from Soacha, a town close to Bogotá.
Thus the judge ordered Polo to “restore the artistic work entitled ‘Mothers With Their Boots On’ to the condition it was in when he first found it.
The boots are a symbol because the soldiers that were involved in the “false positives” put boots on the people they executed to make them appear to be guerrillas killed in combat and so to obtain rewards. Some of the victims, at the time they were found, were wearing two boots on the same foot.
The exposition titled “Women With Their Boots On” was going to remain on the Plaza for three days to “emphasize the pain being suffered by the families and their demands for justice”.
Nevertheless, Polo threw the boots in the trash, after he claimed that “they needed to go where they belonged, in the trash can. He also questioned the number of “false positive” victims, insinuating that it had never happened, and that generated a lot of controversy in the country.
The ”false positives” constitute one of the darkest chapters in the Colombian conflict, and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has determined that there were 6,402 innocent young men who were deceived by false promises of jobs and executed by the Colombian Army to improve their statistics in the fight against the guerrillas, and to receive a reward for that.