Bogotá, Nov 13 (EFE).- The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) of Colombia charged this Wednesday six former members of the last Secretariat of the extinct FARC guerrilla, among them Rodrigo Londoño, alias ‘Timochenko’, as “most responsible” for the forced recruitment of 18,677 children for armed conflict.
The JEP’s Truth Recognition Chamber determined that six former members of the FARC secretariat “are most responsible for these serious crimes,” the president of the JEP, Judge Alejandro Ramelli, said in a press conference.
Those accused and called to acknowledge responsibility, in addition to Londoño, are Jaime Alberto Parra Rodríguez, Milton de Jesús Toncel, Pastor Alape, Pablo Catatumbo Torres and Julián Gallo, the last two, senators for the Comunes party, into which the FARC was transformed. to do politics.
Recruited childhood
According to the JEP, between 1971 and 2016, the year the peace agreement was signed, the FARC “recruited 18,677 boys and girls. These events occurred most frequently between 1996 and 2016, the framework in which the Chamber focused its investigation of Case 07, which investigates the recruitment and use of boys and girls in the armed conflict.
The accusations are also for “mistreatment, torture, homicide and sexual, reproductive and prejudice violence.”
In the ranks of the FARC, “boys and girls suffered rape, sexual slavery, forced unions, forced nudity and other violent sexual acts,” the indictment states.
These violence occurred “systematically and frequently” in various parts of the country. «At least 135 recruited victims reported having suffered from it, this is equivalent to 17% of the registered recruited victims.
Likewise, of the total number of women recruited, 35% reported having suffered them,” the information broke down.
The JEP recalled that 9,854 victims participated in Case 07. Of them, 8,903 belong to five affected indigenous peoples and 951 correspond to individual victims, including direct survivors and families who continue the search for missing recruited children.
In its investigations, the Chamber determined that each of the six defendants, with their “actions and omissions” during their active life in the guerrilla, are responsible for five specific macrocriminal patterns.
In the case of Rodrigo Granda, who was part of the last FARC secretariat as a substitute, but was not charged, the Chamber found that “he did not participate in the definition or implementation of national policies on the incorporation of personnel or in the regulation of intra-row life.
The JEP explained that “top person” is understood to be a person who, due to his or her leadership, has a position of hierarchy or authority that allows him or her to influence the organization and the definition of the policies and conditions that give rise to the execution of macrocriminality patterns.
Indelible marks
The Truth Recognition Chamber found that the six appearing parties participated in the National Guerrilla Conferences that defined or had an impact on the strategic policies of that guerrilla.
«As members of the last Secretariat they had the task of guiding the implementation of these policies throughout the organization – in their capacity as coordinators and commanders of the blocks – and they were directly aware of the course of the determined events and did not take the required measures to prevent, contain and punish war crimes,” explained the JEP.
The Chamber determined that the recruited children suffered the loss of the essence of childhood and the annulment of the possibility of forging their own identity.
“They were denied emotional, social and educational tools that are crucial for projecting life in society, and their experiences within the ranks left deep physical and emotional marks that remain today,” the high court explained.
The JEP concluded that the “deepest effects derive from permanent exposure to death and the anxiety and suffering generated by different violence suffered within the ranks.”
For example, those who suffered sexual violence and reproductive violence suffered “serious bodily and emotional injuries related to their sexual, emotional and maternal being, which extend into their adult lives.”
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