“Colombia ratifies convictions of former FARC leaders and former military personnel for crimes against humanity”

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Bogotá.- The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) ratified this Wednesday the first sentences issued against seven former FARC members for kidnappings and war crimes, as well as the convictions of 12 former Colombian military personnel for murders and forced disappearances on the Caribbean coast.

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The decisions were adopted by the Appeals Section of the JEP, which resolved the appeals filed by the victims, those appearing before the court, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and established criteria that will serve as a precedent for future rulings in the eleven macro-cases investigated by this restorative justice entity.

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“This is a significant step forward for the Jurisdiction, for the victims, and for those who were sentenced by the Tribunal for Peace in the first instance and whose sentences are now definitively confirmed,” stated the president of the JEP’s Appeals Section, Eduardo Cifuentes.

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Sentences in Colombia

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In Case 01 regarding the former members of the last FARC secretariat, the JEP confirmed the criminal responsibility of Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, Jaime Alberto Parra Rodríguez, Milton de Jesús Toncel Redondo, Pablo Catatumbo Torres Victoria, Pastor Lisandro Alape Lascarro, Julián Gallo Cubillos, and Rodrigo Granda Escobar.

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The court declared these former combatants responsible as perpetrators of the war crimes of hostage-taking and homicide, and of the crimes against humanity of deprivation of liberty, murder, and forced disappearance.

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In addition, five of them were convicted of command responsibility for failing to prevent crimes such as torture, sexual violence, forced displacement, and other crimes committed by members of the guerrilla group.

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According to the JEP, the accused are the individuals most responsible for more than 21,000 kidnappings perpetrated to finance the war, pressure prisoner exchanges, and exercise territorial control, acts that resulted in conditions of captivity, torture, sexual violence, humiliation, and other serious human rights violations.

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The Appeals Section modified several aspects of the first-instance judgment “to reinforce the effectiveness of the restorative sanctions”.

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Among the changes, it ordered the incorporation of proposals made by the victims, the establishment of precise schedules for the fulfillment of sentences, and the setting of concrete restrictions on rights and freedoms during the eight years of restorative work, which will take place between August 2026 and February 2034 in seven regions of the country.

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Convicted former military personnel

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In the same way, the JEP confirmed the sanctions imposed on 12 former members of the Army’s La Popa Battalion for murders and forced disappearances of civilians falsely presented as combat casualties between 2002 and 2005 on the Colombian Caribbean coast.

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The magistrates upheld the conviction for murder and forced disappearance, which left 135 victims across 77 victimizing acts, including members of the Kankuamo, Wiwa, and Wayúu indigenous peoples.

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“This sentence can never give you back the lost time, the time of captivity, of the humiliations. The time that you have suffered due to the loss of your loved ones through forced disappearance,” asserted the president of the JEP, Alejandro Ramelli.
The Appeals Section resolved 19 appeals and overturned the conviction for the crimes of persecution and torture, concluding that these were incorporated into the proceedings without following the corresponding legal procedure.

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The ruling confirmed the Restorative and Reparative Works, Projects, and Activities (TOAR) that include the construction of a mausoleum with more than 700 ossuaries at the Ecce Homo cemetery in Valledupar (Cesar), as part of the Comprehensive Memorialization Plan for the Caribbean coast proposed by the victims.

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Subsequently, the former military personnel must execute other projects aimed at the recovery of historical memory, such as the construction of cultural and ecotourism centers.

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