A general and 8 soldiers are convicted in Colombia for the extrajudicial execution of 130 people

This Wednesday, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace of Colombia (JEP) charged retired General Mario Montoya Uribe and eight other soldiers with war crimes and crimes against humanity, as they were accused of committing more than 130 crimes. extrajudicial executions who were reported as “combat casualties” in the department of Antioquia, between 2002 and 2003.

The crimes attributed to Montoya and the other uniformed officers are part of the “Antioquia I Subcase” of the ‘Macrocaso 03’, a file that investigates crimes committed by the Armed Forcessuch as murders and forced disappearances, a widespread pattern of the Army during the Government of Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and which is also known as ‘false positives’.

The judge of the JEP Recognition Chamber, Catalina Diaz, reported at a press conference that the investigations determined that Montoya, as commander of the IV Brigade of the Army, based in Medellin, He imposed on his subordinates the execution of ‘false positives’.

“The ‘false positives’ in Antioquia cannot be understood without the institutional framework demand for better operational results, as part of the security policy of the 2002-2003 period. In the IV Brigade, the pressure for results was consolidated with the message of present ‘combat deaths’ as the only indicator of success to obtain incentives, rewards and not be transferred or retired from the Army,” Diaz said.

The judge added that “the pressure for deaths in combat was exerted by the commander of the Brigade, retired general Mario Montoya, and by the commanders of the different battalions, especially the Infantry Battalion No. 4 ‘Jorge Eduardo Sanchez’ (BAJES), on the members of the tactical units through radio programs.”

The JEP determined that Montoya Uribe, who was later head of the Caribbean Joint Command and commander of the Colombian Army, gave the “recurrent order” and “obligation” to his subordinates to report the success of their military operations, in terms of ‘liters’. ‘, ‘jets’, ‘rivers’, ‘barrels’, or ‘carrotancados’ of blood. Of the 130 documented victims, 11 were boys, four were girlsfive women and three people with disabilities.

Furthermore, of the 81 crimes confessed to by those appearing before the JEP, 33 victims were forcibly disappeared and buried as unidentified persons.

Who are the others responsible and what crimes did they commit?

Montoya Uribe is charged as “the author of war crimes and crimes against humanity” for lie about the number of casualtiescovering up cases of excessive use of force, pressuring members of military units under his command to obtain combat casualties, using violent language that glorified bloodshed and order no catches to be reported considering them undesired operational results.

The decision against the former Army commander is due to 130 murders and forced disappearances (53 in 2002 and 77 in 2003) illegitimately presented as “combat casualties” and which were committed in 16 municipalities of Antioquiaespecially to the east of the department, in localities such as San Carlos, San Rafael, Granada and Cocorna.

For these same crimes, Diaz added, the retired lieutenant colonels Julio Alberto Novoa Ruiz and Ivan Dario Pineda Recueroin addition to four second lieutenants, a lieutenant and a regular soldier, all former members of BAJES.

“The accusation of the former commander of the IV Brigade and the two former commanders of the BAJES is based, in part, on the pressure that each of them exerted due to combat casualties. A practice that was replicated throughout the entire military chain of command until constituting the starting point of the macrocriminal pattern of murders and forced disappearances illegitimately presented as ‘combat casualties,'” the magistrate explained.

As co-authors of these crimes were accused: the platoon commander at the Deriva, Atacador and Canon batteries, Second Lieutenant Emerson Castaneda Morales; the commander of the Bombarda y Canon battery, Lieutenant Nelson Carvajal Chisco; the commander of the Attacker 1 platoon, second lieutenant Edwin Toro; the commander of the Canon battery, second lieutenant Jose Ramirez; the commander of the Bombarda 1 platoon, second lieutenant Diego Guzman Patino and the regular soldier Oscar Mayo Marulanda.

The JEP explained that “the criminal phenomenon” was implemented even when the military leaders had to guarantee the lives of people and protect the civilian population. Instead, imposed “a de facto policy” that did not take into account international humanitarian law (IHL). “These were not isolated or casual behaviors. Each of the murdered and missing victims was the target of attacks with the same purpose: to respond to the excessive and uncontrolled pressure due to combat casualties.”

Military violence in Antioquia

The JEP explained that Antioquia concentrates the largest number of ‘false positives’ registered in ‘Macrocase 03’. Of the 6,402 victims identified between 2002 and 2008, 1,613 were murdered and disappeared in that departmentthat is, 25.19% of the total.

In the case of eastern Antioquia, an area prioritized by the JEP, the institution documented that the pattern of ‘false positives’ was perpetrated in three modalities:

1. Take out to the victims from their homes, jobs or intercept them in transport and public roads and then identify them as guerrillas, militiamen or guerrilla helpers.
2. Cheat to people living on the street or in socioeconomic vulnerability to transport them to the place where they were murdered and then present them as guerrillas killed in combat.
3. Kill and disappear to people detained and protected by IHL when they were already out of combat.

These actions, Diaz added, outlined “a policy for military victory“, which was mainly evident in eastern Antioquia. “In practice, de facto, General Montoya implemented a policy in which the only real indicator by which all military units were demanded, measured, compared and required, were the casualties“, said.

The judge indicated that The JEP continues investigating the events in Antioquia between 2004 and 2006 and others “illustrative of 2007”. It also investigates Montoya Uribe’s performance in other similar events when he was commander of the Caribbean Joint Command and, later, of the National Army.

Meanwhile, Diaz specified that to date The JEP has charged 62 people for the ‘false positives’ file. In addition, he recalled that the agency studies other crimes carried out in Antioquia by State agents in connivance, association or in joint operations with paramilitary groups, which are part of ‘Macrocase 08’.

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