Falsos-Positivos scandal
Cases known as the Falsos-Positivos-Scandal were known in which soldiers of the Colombian army indiscriminately killed civilians during the armed conflict in Colombia and presented the bodies as guerrilla fighters who had fallen in the fight in order to receive bonuses such as promotions or special leave.
The Spanish expression "Falsos Positivos" (English: false positive , German: false positives or false alarms ) comes from the field of statistics and describes cases in which a test procedure incorrectly shows a positive result when assessing a classifier , although it has a negative one Result should have shown.
In total, the official investigations in September 2013 assumed around 3,000 victims.
First suspicions
The scandal was triggered by the fact that 19 young men from Soacha and Ciudad Bolívar had disappeared and shortly afterwards were presented by the army as guerrillas killed in battle in the province of Norte de Santander, several hundred kilometers away . In September 2008, State Secretary Clara López Obregón voiced suspicions that they must be “false positives” as it is unlikely that anyone will be recruited within 24 hours and die in combat. General Paulino Coronado Gámez rejected this assumption and reiterated that the dead were guerrillas. In the course of this, General Mario Montoya had to resign as commander in chief of the Colombian armed forces.
In May 2010, the UN announced about extrajudicial executions in Colombia, which are rarely punished. Human rights activist and UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston visited Colombia in 2009 and found that across the country recruitment agencies lured victims to work in remote areas, killed them by soldiers and put their bodies in uniforms.
In total, the Colombian public prosecutor had to investigate more than 1,400 cases.
Defendants and convicts
5 July 2011 Major Orlando Arturo Cespedes Escalona, deputy commander in was Sucre stationed army unit Fuerza de tarea Conjunta del Ejército de Sucre accused for their involvement in the disappearance and death of eleven young people. He was arrested on October 7, 2010 after ten of the bodies of people between the ages of 16 and 28 were identified and given to their relatives.
On July 13, 2011, a Coronel (equivalent to the German Colonel ) of the Colombian Navy was convicted as the first officer for participating in the murder of two young farmers. His name is given as Luis Fernando Borja or Luis Fernando Borja Giraldo or Luis Fernando Borja Aristizábal. He also belonged to the Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta . In the process he had disclosed another 57 cases with more than 100 victims in which his unit was involved. The original sentence of 42 years was cut in half because the accused mentioned the names of others involved, admitted his responsibility and pleaded guilty. As a motive he named the state bonuses for killing rebels. He also stated that he had adjusted to the prevailing conditions in the province of Sucre in order to avoid reprisals against himself and his family.
On September 9, 2013, a Bogota court sentenced Colonel Publio Hernan Mejia to 19 years in prison. The former battalion commander had people shot dead in 20 cases and described them as combat operations. He is said to have acted in coordination with members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). He had eliminated suspected left-wing rebels and also internal rivals of the paramilitaries. Along with Mejia, the court sentenced three other military officers to 19 years in prison.
According to the Colombian public prosecutor's office, there were investigations against 12 generals in June 2015. On June 24, 2015, Chief Public Prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre ordered four retired generals, including ex-army commander Mario Montoya , to be questioned.
An arrest warrant was issued for Colonel Édgar Emilio Ávila Doria , who was responsible for the military courts on the matter from 2008 to 2010 . He is said to have commanded a battalion between 2005 and 2007 that is said to have committed numerous murders.
Human Rights Watch report
In June 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a detailed report on the incidents. By then, around 800 people - mostly ordinary soldiers - had been sentenced.
The report explicitly names Generals Juan Pablo Rodríguez , at the time of publication, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Army Chief Jaime Laspilla as suspects. According to HRW, units subordinate to them killed 76 civilians.
HRW also criticized the inadequate protective measures for witnesses. The soldier Nixon de Jesus Cárcamo was murdered in a military prison in 2014. He had previously told investigators that he was afraid for his life. In 2013, the wife of a witness was raped by strangers.
HRW also criticized the fact that, despite orders from the Supreme Court, the majority of cases were handled by the military justice system. There are known cases of judges who suppressed evidence in favor of the accused and thereby helped to manipulate crime scenes. An arrest warrant was issued for Colonel Édgar Emilio Ávila Doria, who was responsible for the military courts from 2008 to 2010. In a phone call in December 2012, the then commander-in-chief promised the defendants that their cases would be withdrawn from civil courts and brought to military justice. Under President Juan Manuel Santos an attempt was made to amend the constitution so that human rights violations are generally tried by military courts. It wasn't until April 2015 that the plans were dropped.
Dismissal of the military leadership
On July 6, 2015 - shortly after the publication of the HRW report - President Santos dismissed the Commander in Chief of the Army, General Jaime Alfonso Lasprilla , who was explicitly named in the report as a suspect , the Commander of the Navy, Admiral Hernando Wills , and the Commander of the Air Force, General Guillermo León .
General Alberto Mejía Ferrero was appointed Supreme Commander of the Army. Admiral Leonardo Santamaria took over the leadership of the Navy and General Carlos Bueno took over the leadership of the Air Force. Santos reassigned Admiral Henry Blain , Chief of Staff of the Army, and Director General of Police, Rodolfo Palomino , in their posts.
Web links
- Colombia: Top Brass Linked to Extrajudicial Executions. In: Human Rights Watch. June 24, 2015, accessed June 25, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Colombian officer convicted of illegal executions. In: The Standard . September 10, 2013, accessed July 7, 2015 .
- ↑ Muerte de jovenes en Norte de Santander: “Desaparición forzada con fines de homicidio”. In: Radio Santa Fe. Retrieved September 24, 2008, July 17, 2011 (Spanish).
- ↑ a b c d e f g Colombia: Army murdered civilians, no punishment for generals. In: The Standard . June 25, 2015, accessed June 25, 2015 .
- ↑ The ONU denuncia “un patrón de ejecuciones extrajudiciales” y una impunidad del 98.5%. (No longer available online.) In: International Peace Observatory. June 1, 2010, archived from the original on August 7, 2010 ; Retrieved July 17, 2011 (Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Colombia ya no se conmueve tanto con los “falsos positivos”. (No longer available online.) In: El Nacional. July 15, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 17, 2011 (Spanish). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Capturan a subcomandante de Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta de Sucre por asesinato de 11 jóvenes en falso positivo. In: El Nacional. October 7, 2010, accessed July 17, 2011 (Spanish).
- ^ Army major indicted for 'false positive' killings. In: Columbia Reports. July 5, 2011, accessed July 17, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c Colombian colonel sentenced for faking civilian murders. In: BBC News . July 14, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c d Stephen Manker: Ex-colonel gets 21 years jail for civilian murders. In: Colombia Reports. July 13, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011 .
- ^ A b Gerhard Dilger: Redeclared corpses in Colombia. In: The daily newspaper . July 14, 2011, accessed July 14, 2011 .
- ↑ Colombian officer admits murder of civilians. (No longer available online.) In: DRadio Wissen . July 14, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 15, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Colombian colonel jailed for killings of civilians made to look like rebels. In: The Telegraph . July 15, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011 .
- ↑ a b President Santos dismisses army command. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 7, 2015, accessed July 7, 2015 .
