Colombian court indicts FARC members and others!
Bogotá, Dec 9 (EFE).-
Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) indicted on Tuesday eight former members of the formerly active Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla, 21 members of the armed forces, and five civilians for their alleged participation in executions falsely presented as combat casualties, known in Colombia as “false positives,” which occurred between 1997 and 2007.
It is the first time the JEP has linked former guerrillas, military personnel, and civilians as third parties involved in the same pattern of macro-criminality.
According to the court, the crimes took place in the departments of Antioquia (northwest) and Chocó (west) and that various armed and economic actors deployed “strategies of violence, social control, and territorial appropriation.”
Retired officials were indicted for the responsibility of the public forces, including General Alejandro Navas Ramos, then commander of the Army and Military Forces (2011-2013), and later ambassador to Argentina (2013–2017) after retiring from active service.
Also indicted were Major Generals Edgar Ceballos Mendoza and Emiro José Barrios Jiménez, as well as Brigadier General Rito Alejo del Río, who has already been investigated in other macro-cases by this court.
Regarding the FARC, the indictment includes eight former guerrillas who were not part of the group’s command and had already been charged with kidnapping and other crimes in a separate case brought by the JEP.
The JEP explained that the indicted civilians were “volunteers linked to extensive cattle ranching and agro-industry projects associated with the Córdoba Cattle Fund (FGC)” and identified the following individuals among them: Benito Molina, the then president of the board of directors; Benito Osorio, the manager; Carmelo Esquivia, the legal advisor; and the directors Luis Gonzalo Gallo and Jaime García.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, created by the 2016 peace agreement between the government and former FARC, determined that the crimes were systematic forms of violence, such as stigmatizing and murdering people considered “enemies,” as well as exercising social and cultural control through threats and attacks on communities.
A study by Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory found that 220,000 people were killed in the conflict between 1958 and 2013.
Most of the victims were civilians, with 177,307 killed and 40,787 fighters killed. In addition, over 5 million civilians were forced from their homes between 1985 and 2012, creating the world’s second-largest population of internally displaced persons.
As of 2025, the JEP has recognized 54,672 victims of massacres, forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, and the murder of community leaders, which caused “especially grave” harm to the Embera, Guna Dule, Waunana, and Zenú Indigenous peoples and communities in the Urabá, Bajo Atrato, and Darién regions bordering Panama.
One of the most notorious crimes occurred on May 2, 2002, in Bojayá, Chocó, when FARC members launched cylinder bombs at a church where civilians were taking refuge from a confrontation with paramilitaries. The attack killed 98 people, including 48 children.
Within the next 60 business days, the 34 defendants must respond to indicate whether they accept the attributed facts.
Those who acknowledge responsibility may receive restorative sanctions of between five and eight years, which do not include deprivation of liberty, and those who do not accept responsibility will be subjected to trials facing sentences of up to 20 years in prison. EFE
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