The Colombian State withdrew from the hearing on the Jineth Bedoya case before the Inter-American Court

Camilo Gómez, director of the National Agency for Legal Defense of the State, resigned from participating in the public hearing that the Inter-American Court held in the case of torture and sexual violence suffered by journalist Jineth Bedoya. Not only did he withdraw from the diligence, he also asked to set aside the majority of judges who will decide on the file.

During the morning of March 15, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights heard the case of journalist and social activist Jineth Bedoya, who in May 2000 suffered an episode of torture and sexual violence after interviewing a paramilitary chief in prison. La Modelo (Bogotá). When Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito, president of the Inter-American Court, requested the intervention of the Colombian State, the director of the National Legal Defense Agency, Camilo Gómez, withdrew from the virtual hearing.

In context: Confirmation of conviction against former paramilitary perpetrators of journalist Jineth Bedoya.

The reason? In the words of Camilo Gómez: “The interventions and questions of the judges demonstrated evident prejudices and involved new issues that were not even debated before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (international justice body that referred Bedoya’s case to the Inter-American Court in 2019 ) “. According to the director of the National Legal Defense Agency, the judges who questioned Bedoya did not act objectively.

Starting at 8:00 in the morning, the judges of the Inter-American Court asked Jineth Bedoya about the vivid nightmare on May 25, 2000, when a group of imprisoned paramilitaries kidnapped her, to access her and leave her on public roads. So moving and resilient was her story, that even several of the judges, including President Odio Benito, delivered messages of support for a woman who, for more than 20 years, wanted to represent the voice of hundreds of women who suffer gender violence In colombia.

However, for Camilo Gómez, the interrogation given by the assistant editor of the Time represents a lack of guarantees for the interests of the Colombian State. Such was the discontent of the government official, who challenged President Elizabeth Odio Benito and judges Patricio Pazmiño Freire, Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni, Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot and Ricardo Pérez Manrique. In other words, he requested that the vast majority of the people who attend the case be relieved of the knowledge of the same file.

In context: Jineth Bedoya case: Colombian state goes to the defendant’s dock in the Inter-American Court.

“What is involved here is the lack of guarantees and objectivity in this process. This position of the Colombian State has to be with the obligation of the judges to be impartial. It is not about not being courteous to the victim, to whom we all owe the utmost respect. It is about not prejudging a State that presents itself with humility before the Inter-American Court and that puts its face before the victim ”, explained Gómez in his first and only intervention during the hearing.

And he continued with his arguments: “We have already accumulated several procedural problems (before the Inter-American Court). Courtesy and solidarity are welcome, but the prejudice expressed in the judges’ questions cannot be accepted by the State. Here all the magistrates, except for Magistrate Renato Vio Grossi, have expressed prejudging questions and opinions that show Colombia that there is an opinion formed in the case, without even hearing what Colombia has to say at this hearing ”.

After the intervention of Camilo Gómez, who was disconnected from that moment, the president of the Inter-American Court Elizabeth Odio Benito explained that the requested procedure will be evaluated in the coming days, however, she went ahead with the virtual hearing. Then, the Foundation for Press Freedom (Flip) called the editor-general of The viewer Jorge Cardona Alzate, to render his version of the dark episode experienced by Bedoya.

According to Cardona, who first drew the panorama of Colombia during the beginning of the millennium, Jineth Bedoya was one of her students at the Central University in 1993. The general editor of this newspaper said that he directed the journalist’s thesis and invited her to work in The viewer years later, when Bedoya had gained a great background in RCN Radio. In one of the investigations, Jineth Bedoya tracked down the dark panorama of La Modelo prison, as important guerrilla and paramilitary leaders had made the prison their center of operations.

In context: Jineth Bedoya: “I know my life is at risk, but it is no reason to shut up.”

“That condition, having all the actors reunited, was what made La Modelo so dangerous at that time. Those who carried out the protection work were the inmates themselves, the paramilitaries had R-15 rifles and patrolled the jail. There was the central office of paramilitarism for the urban area. There were the most important bosses and there was also Jhon Jairo Vásquez, alias Popeye. Six months after my abduction, I went there to ask them. One of the high security cells was manned by Popeye and there he had private documents of many people, including me, “said Bedoya in a public hearing.

It was precisely in that detention center, looking for the voice of former paramilitary chief Mario Jaimes Mejía, alias Baker, that Jineth Bedoya lived through the episode of torture and gender violence that, after 20 years, places the Colombian State as a possible omissionate actor. So far, there have been three convictions: aka Baker, to 28 years in prison. Jesús Emiro Pereira, alias Eggepizca, to 40 years in jail. And Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco, alias not a word, 30 years behind bars. However, Jineth Bedoya assures that the responsibility of around 17 people, due to their intellectual authorship, has yet to be investigated, including state agents.