Patricia Linares sends a message to critics of the JEP on her last day in front of the court

In March 2017, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) was born in Colombia as the transitional justice system that was created in the Peace Agreement between the National Government and the Farc-EP in 2016. Six months after it was founded, Judge Patricia Linares was appointed to be its president for a period of three years, which ends this Friday, October 30.

During the delivery of the report of his management, Linares said that he feels calm because in those three years they achieved a process of implementation of the Jurisdiction that allows saying: “We started from scratch on January 15, 2018 and today we have the JEP working at 100%”.

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In the balance that Linares delivered of the three years of operation of the JEP, the following stand out: seven macro-cases opened, which link 9,800 appearing parties of the defunct FARC and 2,700 members of the public force, as well as 117 state servants submitted and 600 applications from third parties that apply as funders, promoters and sponsors who have voluntarily submitted to the JEP.

The magistrate highlighted that the JEP already has more than 308,000 accredited individual and collective victims and 34,000 judicial decisions have already been adopted. “All important, because it has been our task to fill that complex design with content that aspires to meet the expectations that have been raised during the two days of the meeting”, he pointed out.

The president of the JEP insisted that there are issues on which they have to continue advancing based on pedagogical strategies and results that allow society to understand, as well as the victims and friendly or adversary sectors, that the transitional justice model works.

“The JEP presents results, guarantees non-impunity and honors the commitment to impose sanctions ordered by the Constitution but according to the seriousness of the crimes over which we have jurisdiction, such as those against humanity and war crimes that occurred before December 1, 2016 ”, explained Linares.

In front of those who demand prompt results from the JEP, its president explained: “It is a difficult task. We are talking about an unprecedented model in the world, unprecedented of any order and that is governed by principles and logics different from those that are rooted in the social imaginary. To which societies are accustomed responding to the principles of retributive justice ”.

Patricia Linares’ message to the JEP’s opponents

For Linares, the work of the peace court seems to be increasingly difficult due to the debates that are taking place in the country about whether or not this model guarantees the rights of the victims.

They blame us for being at the service of one or another ideology.

In fact, during the International Meeting on Transitional Justice ‘Emerging Responses to Contemporary Atrocities’, organized by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, this October 29, the president Iván Duque threw several darts at the work of the JEP.

“It is essential that sadly famous events such as those that occurred with alias Jesús Santrich, alias Iván Márquez and alias el ‘Paisa’ (…) that put the administration of justice into question, since almost more than nine months after the reliable facts of his return to criminal activity occurred, the decisions of his exclusion were known “, said the head of state.

However, the president of the JEP was “optimistic because in these three years we have presented a balance of which we are proud. In Colombia they talk about whether it is healthy for the country to insist on the search for the truth, deep and full.

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Upon leaving office, Patricia Linares regretted that she frequently has to turn to the demand for respect for autonomy and independence that is owed to judges in any country that claims to be democratic.

Magistrates Eduardo Cifuentes as president and Alexandra Sandoval as vice president they will replace Patricia Linares Prieto and Xiomara Balanta.

Linares will continue as a magistrate of the Appeals Chamber, closing body of the Tribunal for Peace. There it will decide on the requests to revoke, confirm or modify the sentences and decisions of the Sections and Chambers of the JEP.