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Evasive responses, delays in delivering the information, or requirements that are impossible to fulfill by official institutions were some of the obstructions that this commission denounced before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In particular, he made reference to the Military Forces.
In the midst of a virtual hearing organized by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on the Truth Commission in Colombia, Commissioner Alejandro Valencia vehemently denounced various obstructions that this instance, born of the Peace Agreement, has had. These obstacles, he said, have come mainly from state institutions and the ruling party, the Democratic Center.
Among the three complaints that the commissioner brought to the attention of the IACHR, he placed special emphasis on the limitations that the commission has had in accessing information from official entities that they consider key to clarifying what happened in more than half a century of war. A claim that the commission has already expressed in different scenarios, drawing attention in particular to the validity of its mandate, which ends in November 2021.
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According to the complaint, there has been no collaboration, which translates into “lack of responses, additional requirements that are impossible to meet in the remainder of the Truth Commission’s existence, or negative responses to official communications sent requesting access and copy of documents identified as relevant to the clarification process ”.
In his speech he made explicit reference to some state entities with which they have faced this type of obstruction: the Ministry of Justice, Legal Medicine, Inpec, the Financial Analysis Information Unit (UIAF), the Ministry of Defense, the Military Forces and the National Police.
It also brought to the attention of the IACHR specific cases in which they have found these limitations. For example, he assured that the National Navy has denied them access to the documentary inventories in charge of the Intelligence and Counterintelligence headquarters, arguing that they are documents protected by legal reserve. It also denounced that “in the face of requests to the Public Force regarding specific official documents on a certain massacre, or on a joint operation of the Military Forces and the National Police, a response has been given with context reports constructed from information from open sources, like press, Internet or academic books ”.
Among the cases mentioned, he also spoke of the fact that when they have asked the Defense Ministry for information on illegal interceptions, it has responded elusively, saying that the commission should go to another authority or that it has been transferred to another agency. He also denounced that when they asked the Military Forces for information on the victimizing acts against members of the Patriotic Union party, the answer was that “no information was available.”
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And he especially drew attention to the fact that some entities have responded that the information requested does not exist because it has been destroyed or incinerated by that same institution. Specifically, he mentioned that this was the response of the Army and the Police regarding four massacres that occurred in Magdalena Medio between 1987 and 1999 and the Tacueyó massacre (Cauca).
In addition to these limitations to access information, the commissioner also denounced “the messages of discredit and defamation towards his work (that of the commission), based on false or misrepresented statements and information that puts the integrity of the Commissioners at risk, as well as the entire team of the entity and the victims who have participated in its different scenarios ”. He assured that these messages have come mainly from members of the ruling party, the Democratic Center.
As have also come from that party the attempts to reform the bodies of the transitional justice system, which was the commissioner’s third claim. According to the complaint, in 2018 a representative to the Chamber of the Democratic Center presented the draft Legislative Act 087, which established that none of the organizations of that justice system could access confidential information related to national security, “such as military operations, state, intelligence and counterintelligence that put the national security or its agents at risk ”.
Based on these claims, there were five petitions that the Truth Commission made to the IACHR. Perhaps the most important, that this instance requires the Colombian State to present before March 2021 “a detailed report on the status of the petitions raised by the Truth Commission related to access to information and, in any case, present the justification for the refusal to deliver it ”. Along with it, that the IACHR require the State to guarantee harmonious collaboration with the mandates and functions of the Truth Commission.
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Likewise, the commission asked the IACHR to urge the State to refrain from presenting legislative initiatives that seek to reform the mechanisms of the transitional justice system. The other two petitions are related to this instance recognizing the work and importance of the work of the Commission regarding the rights of the victims of the conflict; and that in its annual report, in relation to Colombia, the IACHR present a balance of the situation presented by the Truth commissioners at the hearing this Tuesday.
