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“United for memory and truth” gathered the testimonies of the 15 members of the Madres de Soacha and Bogotá (Mafapo) collective, victims of the so-called false positives in Colombia. JEP magistrates and CEV commissioners promised to answer why these serious crimes occurred.
This Tuesday, in a harsh and moving virtual broadcast, the Mothers of Soacha and Bogotá delivered to the Truth Commission and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) their report on the events that these women, mothers, wives have had to face and sisters, after their next of kin were victims of extrajudicial executions by State agents.
Jacqueline Castillo, legal representative of this group, opened and closed this meeting by thanking the JEP for the number of 6,042 victims of these murders presented as false casualties in combat by State agents. And she thanked her because she realizes that they were not isolated cases but rather a systematic crime of the State. And he insisted that they want the high command to face them and that as a restoration measure they hope that the medals and promotions they gave to those responsible for the murder of their children, brothers and husbands will be withdrawn in public. He also pointed out that after this figure was known, they have been called from different parts of the country, such as Pasto, Soacha, Engativá (Bogotá), Aquitania (Boyacá), from people who believe that a relative lived something similar and who want to document better their cases. That is why Jacqueline believes that this figure could be much higher.
(We recommend: They are not 2,248 or 6,402 false positives: the number in the JEP would increase in the future)
The effects range from the emotional, family and psychological to the socioeconomic. Gloria Martinez, for example, spoke of how “desperate” and “painful” the search for families has been. And how they were finding stories as hard as that the bodies of their relatives, found as false casualties in combat in Ocaña, Norte de Santander, were drugged and drugged before being assassinated. “They were treated worse than animals,” Gloria said.
As well as the case of Doris Tejada, who had to sell her house to be able to look for her son Óscar Alexander Morales and today lives on the outskirts of Bogotá in precarious conditions. Óscar was reported as a guerrilla killed in combat by the La Popa Battalion on January 16, 2008. So far she is still waiting to be able to recover her body, which could be buried in the alternate cemetery of El Copey (Cesar), That is why in this transmission they asked not to carry out infrastructure projects in this area until it is possible to clarify where this and other bodies of disappeared youth may be.
During the event Doris spoke about how hard it has been for her to face a mass grave looking for answers and how she, by continuing to have her son disappeared, has had to live that nightmare several times. Now he fears that they will erase the chances of finding him and he narrated how during this process many of the mothers have been convinced to bury their relatives without clear necropcies. Situations that added to the negligence, hopelessness and re-victimization by the entities that have suffered.
For their part, mothers and relatives who were able to bury their children continue to face more than eight years of debts with the cemeteries where the bodies are, and some have not been recognized by the Victims Unit. Eight of them have also been victims of other events of the armed conflict, such as threats, forced displacement (in the case of four of them) and the murder of their relatives, as happened to Beatriz Méndez, who was killed by a brother and his nephew; and Carmenza Gómez and Luz Edilia Palacios, who have lost another child.
Idali Garcera, another of the mothers of this group, and who lost her son, spoke about a little-recognized issue. The enormous pressure and manipulation by journalists and NGOs to which they have been subjected, which have contributed to re-victimizing and groping them. “They pressured us to deliver photos and souvenirs and I lent myself to that. They came to my apartment and said that I lived in slums and I didn’t even know that. All that has been very hard ”.
(You may be interested in: JEP investigates alleged pressure for ex-military personnel to change their testimonies)
Others have suffered events that have nothing to do with the armed conflict, but have also marked their lives as in the case of Soraida Muñoz, Doris and Rubiela Giraldo. Soraida lost a son to a stray bullet, Doris lost first her father and then her daughter, both of them run over by a car and Rubiela her husband for the same cause.
The report “United for Memory and Truth” collected the testimonies of the 15 women and the search for their children, justice and truth that they have sought tirelessly over 13 years. It was also prepared from interviews with other families and victims of the so-called “false positives” in El Castillo (Meta), El Placer (Putumayo), San Carlos (Antioquia); even with some of the military who refused to commit these crimes.
“It is intended that the different dimensions of the damage caused be recognized, something that is often reduced because the figures do not reveal the mothers who died of moral pain, the children who have been left without the support of their parents, who have had to suffer stigmatization, physical and mental illnesses, family breakdowns, manipulation, illegal removal of organs, having to face mass graves to find someone they love or to keep looking for them, “said the group.
In turn, the JEP magistrate, Catalina Díaz, who is investigating macro case 03 of “Illegitimately killed in combat by State agents,” thanked the group for the trust they have placed in the JEP and assured that they continue to work on the establishment of patterns of this crime, contrasting information to clarify why these events occurred. In that direction, he mentioned, they have had access to military manuals and guidelines. “We are in the phase of analysis of patterns and criminal plans that were behind the commission of these events. And we hope to continue moving forward, ”said Judge Óscar Parra.
At the close of this two-hour broadcast, the JEP delegate attorney, Jairo Acosta, made an important recognition and mea culpa after hearing the testimonies of women who repeatedly repeated the institutional negligence and lack of support they have found in state entities that, on the other hand, have stigmatized and discriminated against them.
Blanca Nubia Monroy spoke in that direction, when she mentioned that “in an abusive way” former President Álvaro Uribe, who has always denied the existence of a policy of “false positives”, told the media that his relatives were guilty because they were not murdered. “Picking up coffee.”
It is precisely about that denialism that the commissioner for Truth, Alejandra Miller, referred, who assured that the truth is still “threatened by the denial of power” and that saying that “they would not be picking coffee” only reflects an enormous contempt for life. Likewise, Commissioner Lucía González said that it is thanks to the courage of these women that one of their crimes, committed by State agents, is recognized and never wanted to be repeated.
(Read also: The bodies found by the JEP in Dabeiba were victims of “false positives”)
This same Tuesday, senators and politicians Iván Cepeda, Antonio Sanguino and Ángela Maria Robledo together with the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice) accompanied the Mothers of Soacha to file in Congress a bill for the memory of their loved ones and other victims of “false positives”.
We recommend reading:
False positives in the JEP: 78% of the victims reported to the Uribe government
What’s behind the JEP figures on false positives?
‘Military accepted in the JEP that they tried to kill me’: survivor of “false positives”
