Members of Colombia’s security forces are under investigation for the extrajudicial execution of almost 3,000 civilians, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Monday.
Until June 1, 1,882 members of the security forces had been charged with the murder of 2,984 civilians, a prosecution spokesman told Colombia Reports.
Since the scandal broke in late 2008, an additional 216 members of the security forces have been sentenced for the murder of 523 civilians who, after being killed, were dressed up and registered as guerrillas, said the official.
According to the spokeman, the Prosecutor General’s Office’s Human Rights unit still has 1,608 cases against one or more state officials open.
The massive killing of civilians by the security forces forced former President Alvaro Uribe and his then-Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos to purge the military command while civilian courts were given jurisdiction over alleged “false positives” cases previously handled by military tribunals.