Does the FARC confess or cover up? The cloak of doubt that falls on the responsibility of the murder of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado

This Saturday, October 3, the Farc political party sent a letter to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace -JEP-, signed by Julián Gallo Cubillos, Pastor Lisandro Alape Lascarro and Pablo Catatumbo Torres Victoria, and their lawyers, in which they attribute the murder of conservative politician Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, which occurred on November 2, 1995.

The confession of the crime by the Former guerrilla chiefs generated a wave of comments from politiciansSome even pointed to an alleged cover-up of those who were truly responsible for the crime.

“Eyes wide open: if JEP assumes jurisdiction in the case of Álvaro Gómez, it will be to cover up those who are truly responsible. Farc will be willing to do a favor to their friends. It is not a coincidence. Precisely now progress is beginning to be seen”Wrote Rafael Nieto Loaiza, a member of the Democratic Center, on his Twitter account.

Senators of the ruling party also joined to reject that the FARC has attributed the murder of Gómez Hurtado.

“We Colombians want justice”: Duque

President Iván Duque also reacted to the news: “We saw in the last hours that some members of the Farc have attributed this fact to themselves and that they are going to tell the JEP that. I want to say the following, obviously that justice does its job, but also that he is not going to allow for one thing to try to obstruct the true responsibility behind that murder ”.

The president said that he had doubts that the FARC would adjudicate the crime, “when there are already guarantees that no one is going to pay jail time. It does not stop generating doubts, suspicions, concerns”.

In addition, he pointed out that if someone claims this death and it does not correspond to the truth, it should be understood “that a crime is being committed to obstruct justice in our country. We want justice to act decisively promptly and not to dismiss any of the considerations, or in the statements that it has also made Álvaro Gómez’s family about what they claim must be investigated so that the truth is known”.

The response of former president Ernesto Samper

Through a statement, the former president of Colombia Ernesto Samper and former minister Horacio Serpa, linked to the investigation into the murder of Álvaro Gómez, They said they felt “surprised” because the FARC took responsibility for the crime.

“We support that this recognition be made within the framework of transitional justice, as a contribution to the truth, we hope to know the details of manner, time and place, which the JEP will surely investigate, to make a definitive pronouncement on them,” they declared. .

Likewise, both politicians stated that in recent years they have been victims of insults and slander from Álvaro Gómez’s family for “Petty financial interests”.

“It was a mistake to have killed the politician”

Rodrigo Londoño, political leader of the Farc, published a statement in which they admit that they were behind the murder of Gómez Hurtado in 1995.

“We have expressed our decision to contribute the truth and recognize the responsibility of the Farc in the homicides of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, Jesús Antonio Bejarano, Fernando Landazábal Reyes and Pablo Emilio Guarin, as well as Hernando Pizarro and José Fedor Rey. We ratify our unwavering commitment to peace in Colombia, with the victims and their families”.

The Farc party points out that for 25 years this crime, declared as against humanity in May 2019, has remained in impunity.

“This lacerates the open wound in the heart of Álvaro Gómez’s family and friends. Today, a few days after the 25th anniversary of this murder, the members of the former secretariat of the extinct FARC-EP recognize before the family of Gómez Hurtado, the country and the world that we are responsible for this fact ”, they confessed.

At the end of the statement, the now political party acknowledges that it was a mistake to have assassinated “a politician of the stature of Álvaro Gómez Hurtado. We have read their biographies and today we know that their contribution to the peace of the country it would have been fundamental. But the war clouds the vision of the future and only allows us to see reality in black and white and divide it into friends and enemies ”.