Colombian and Spanish authorities debated the success of Colombia's Justice and Peace Process in Madrid on Thursday.
At a debate organized by the Toledo International Centre for Peace, Spanish and Colombian legal authorities discussed the achievements and failures of the Justice and Peace law, which was implemented in 2002 by President Alvaro Uribe.
Spanish Supreme Court Judge, Baltasar Garzon, stated that he believed the Justice and Peace law has suffered as a result of the Colombian government's decision to extradite former paramilitary and guerrilla bosses to the U.S. because it meant that much truth surrounding many crimes would never be known, reported news site W Radio.
Responding to criticism over the lack of convictions against paramilitaries and guerrillas, Colombia's Prosecutor General Guillermo Mendoza said that the Justice and Peace law "could not be measured by the number of convictions" alone. Colombia's Deputy Justice Minister, Miguel Ceballos, added that "the truth about crimes committed by the AUC paras will be discerned from the U.S."
Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Frank Pearl, defended the achievements of the Justice and Peace law, declaring that it had enabled the victims of crimes to understand and access their rights, reported newspaper El Tiempo.
"This is the most sophisticated reparation process in the world," stressed Pearl. "We are responsibly creating the conditions for peace, that is to say finding out the truth and compensating victims."
Pearl and Ceballos defended the decision to extradite paramilitary bosses (who demobilized between 2002 and 2006) to face drug trafficking charges. However, many participants at the debate asserted that the extraditions had negatively affected the search for truth.
On behalf of the victims, Ivan Cepeda referred to failures of the Justice and Peace law, stating that he believed there risks being a "collapse" in the system and he declared that neither prosecutors nor judges from the U.S. want to get involved with Colombia. Cepeda suggested that the extradited paramilitaries could make "embarrassing revelations" about the Colombia government.
Pearl denied this, insisting that the aim of the extradition was not to hide the truth and had instead taken place because the paramilitaries had not complied with the Justice and Peace terms.
The reparation process was established as an agreement between the Colombian government and paramilitary armed groups throughout the country. The law required that illegal armed groups demobilize and in exchange they would not be extradited for their crimes. However, many have since been sent to the U.S. to face drug charges.
Garzon referred to the complexity of the process in achieving "reparation, truth and international credibility," and he confirmed that he disagreed that paramilitaries should be extradited for drug trafficking reasons before their crimes committed against humanity.
According to figures released by El Tiempo, in the seven years since Justice and Peace was begun, over 51,000 armed gang members have been demobilized across Colombia - some 32,000 belonging to right-wing paramilitary group while some 15,000 fought with FARC guerrilla factions.
Compatriota
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... First if you make a deal you should keep it. How are you supposed to end fighting and killing if you send people to the US? Did these people commit horrable crimes, Yes. The point is to stop this and to give closure to families that have suffered so much. In an enviroment where drugs fog the mind and law and order is no existant it is easy for people to have no remorse and kill for nothing. To bring laws from another country and impose them upon a nation that is fighting to come to the standards of the rest of the world is crazy. It is a long road and a process to end the killings, to bring law and order to all of Colombia. By breaking deals with people that turn themselves in only ends the process. Would you belive a Peace Process after seeing what happened to people that went along with the agreement? Until the Colombian Gov keeps its word, there will be no justice and peace law. |
gringomedeliin
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... Compatriota, those sent to the US broke the agreement thus were sent to the US to face drug charges, IWhile the process might not please everyone, whatn it has done is to find out who was behind what and were the bodies are. I can not speak for those who lost a love one, but if it was me I would want my loved ones remains to bury proper, while I would like to see those responsible convicted , if they do time in Colombia or USA wouldn't matter to me, the fact they have lost their freedom . Another issue of those doing time in Colombia a nimber have continured to order killings and run thier operations with ease in Colombia, in the USA restriction in place make that much harder, every piece of mail entering a US prison is opened and inspected , in regards to those in organized crime even read. All phone calls are monitored, it seems from stories I have read this is not the case in Colombia. so I feel justice in some case is better done when they get sent to the USA. |
Compatriota
said:
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... I understand your point. The hardest thing to do is to put the past in the past and move forward. The reason the war has gone on for so long is because people keep looking at the past and not the future. Colombia is and can be the strongest nation in Latin America. Only by looking forward can Colombia move out of the nightmare that it has been in for over 40 years. The drug business worked in the 1970's and early 80's but now between the new meth drugs produced in Mexico, the ability to stop money laundering and the contant capture of tons of drugs heading to the US and Europe has made the cost of operating too expensive. If colombians are intelligent enough to make billions of dollars off of a simple plant think what they can achieve doing honest business. There are drug gangs in the US that operate out of prisons just as they do in Colombia. Where there is a will there is a way. The only thing that will work is to not tell people what to do but rather give them an option to move in a diffrent direction. When you lock one person up there are 20 waiting to take their place. It never ends until you give people another option out of poverty. |
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