Colombia: Court indicts former army chief for murders of civilians

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) charged this Wednesday for the first time a former commander of the Colombian Army, accusing retired General Mario Montoya, along with 8 other soldiers, of 130 extrajudicial executions of innocent youths (known in Colombia as ” false positives”) in the northwest of the country.

The JEP, the ad hoc tribunal created by the peace agreement with the FARC, considers Montoya a possible perpetrator of “war crimes and crimes against humanity” for “unlawful murders and forced disappearances presented as combat casualties by state agents” among 2002 and 2003 in the eastern part of the department of Antioquia, when he was commander of the Army’s Fourth Brigade.

And he accuses him of “lying about the number of casualties, covering up cases of excessive use of force, pressuring members of the military units under his command to obtain casualties ‘in combat’, using violent language that exalted the spilling of blood and order that captures not be reported as they are considered undesirable operational results”, explained the magistrate of truth recognition of the JEP, Catalina Díaz.

Along with Montoya, for the same crimes, the JEP’s Chamber for the Recognition of Truth and Responsibility also accused lieutenant colonels Julio Alberto Novoa Ruiz and Iván Darío Pineda Recuero, in addition to four second lieutenants, one lieutenant and a regular soldier, all former members of the Infantry Battalion No. 4 “Jorge Eduardo Sánchez” (BAJES) and retired from the Army.

Montoya and the two former BAJES commanders are accused, “because of their leadership position,” for the pressure that each of them exerted to cause the casualties to occur in combat, “a practice that was replicated throughout the entire chain of military command, to the point of constituting the starting point of the macrocriminal pattern of murders and forced disappearances illegitimately presented as combat casualties”.

“According to the court order, these officers, through the articulation of generic and, in some cases, implicit orders, and measures of a diverse nature, instigated or induced the material executors, despite not always having direct contact with them. and to be found, as a general rule, relatively far from the place of perpetration”, considered the imputation room.

The JEP -which offers alternative sentences to prison for recognition of the truth- asked Montoya to acknowledge his responsibility as “author” for having lied about the numbers of alleged casualties of the extinct FARC and its cover-up of these war crimes, as well as for this pressure that he exerted on his inferiors.

Montoya is the highest-ranking military officer who has rendered a version before this court for the “false positives,” one of the darkest episodes of the conflict in which the military offered work to young people, especially from the lower classes, to take them to other parts of the country. country and assassinate them with the objective of presenting them as guerrillas killed in combat and thus get incentives and awards from their superiors.

Until now, the JEP considers that in the country there were 6,402 deaths or forced disappearances illegally presented as combat casualties throughout the national territory between 2002 and 2008″, which corresponds to the Government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), of the that Montoya was commander of the Army between 2006 and 2008.

67 CHARGES FOR “FALSE POSITIVES”

With these new nine, the JEP has so far charged 62 people with “false positives” in Case 03, of which 55 (89%) have acknowledged their responsibility.

Of these new 130 crimes charged (among which there are 4 girls, 11 boys and 3 people with disabilities) to the nine former soldiers, 53 correspond to 2002 and 77 to 2003.

The JEP highlighted three modalities in the “modus operandi” in these crimes: some victims were taken from their homes, jobs or transportation and then accused of being guerrillas; Other people in vulnerable conditions were deceived with promises of work and then murdered, and finally there were also murders and disappearances of possible guerrillas but they were assassinated hors de combat, which violates IHL.

This determination occurs within the subcase in the Antioquia department (northwest), one of the six prioritized areas in Case 03, that of the so-called “false positives”, explained the magistrate, who added that other cases are still being investigated where it could also To have responsability.

Now the defendants will have 30 business days to acknowledge or reject the facts, after which the JEP will set a public hearing (if they recognize them) and a resolution will be adopted so that the Court for Peace imposes its own sanction, if it is the case. case, which could exclude them from going to prison.

If those appearing deny their responsibility, the case will be referred to the Investigation and Prosecution Unit (UIA), where they could face prison sentences of up to 20 years. EFE

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.