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Former FARC rebels on Saturday claimed responsibility for six murders, including that of Álvaro Gómez, a former Colombian presidential candidate assassinated in 1995, in a letter sent to a special peace tribunal.
Justice for Peace (JEP), which investigates crimes committed during the conflict between former guerrillas and the government, said in a statement that the letter it received on September 30 sought to “tell the truth, clarify the facts and take responsibility” for several murders.
In addition to the murder of Álvaro Gómez, on November 2, 1995, they included the murder of a retired general, Fernando Landazabal, in 1998, and of the former peace adviser Jesús Antonio Bejarano in 1999.
This revelation attracted much attention in Colombia, where it was widely believed that Álvaro Gómez, leader of the Conservative Party and candidate for the presidency on three occasions, was the target of political rivals allied with the army and drug traffickers.
The letter is signed by former rebel commanders Julián Gallo, Pastor Alape and Pablo Catatumbo.
Two of them, Gallo and Catatumbo, now sit in the Colombian Congress, as part of the peace accords signed in 2016 that ended an armed conflict of almost six decades between the ex-rebels and the government.
The Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once the most powerful in the Americas, laid down their arms and became a political party.
As part of the 2016 agreement, its main leaders promised to confess their crimes before the Justice of the Peace and to compensate the victims or their families, in exchange for alternative sentences to prison.
If they do not fulfill their commitment, they will be brought before the ordinary justice.