Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
  • About us
  • Support us
  • Contact Us
  • Intelligence
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
Patricia Linares (Image: Senate)
From Colombia Reports

Colombia Reports’ personality of the year: Patricia Linares

by Adriaan Alsema December 14, 2020

Colombia Reports’ personality of the year is former war crimes tribunal president Patricia Linares, whose defense of justice for war crime victims shaped Colombia’s future.

Linares ended her term as the first president of the Special Jurisdiction of Peace (JEP) this year after successfully setting up a robust transitional justice system despite coordinated sabotage attempts.

The former JEP president’s ability to fence off attacks and deescalate tensions made her arguably Colombia’s most important defender of victims’ rights defender and promotor of peaceful conflict solution.

Linares also made it clear that those trying to get away with crimes against humanity have every reason to fear the JEP, which has shown no interest in any political justification of crimes.

In fact, Linares’ work will have a long-lasting impact on Colombia as both state actors and illegal armed groups slowly begin to understand that any victimization will have legal consequences.

This is not just removing the legitimacy of the use of violence used during the armed conflict, but is already disrupting attempts to legitimize violence in the present while the court has yet to issue its first verdict.

For the first time in history, a court is dedicated to impose legal limits on politics, possibly ending the “anything goes” mentality that has justified violence since 1819.

Linares has become the personification of restraint and moderation, the polar opposite of Colombia’s degenerated political culture and its tendency to spiral out of control.

The former JEP president has demonstrated that natural authority is imposed with grace and that legitimacy is not obtained by force.

President Ivan Duque unfortunately learned this the hard way and will have to finish his term with almost no legitimate authority before going into history as one of Colombia’s worst presidents.

Linares will likely be left out of the history books, which probably doesn’t concern the JEP’s first president who shaped her country’s future.

JEPPatricia Linares

Trending

  • Colombia’s main cities shut down as COVID threatens to collapse healthcare

  • Colombia’s capital Bogota to lock down for another weekend

  • What COVID taught Colombia about cocaine | Part 1: the tsunami

Weekly interviews and news updates

Related articles

  • Colombia wants paramilitary chiefs in prison, not testifying in court

  • US embassy took part in DEA plot to discredit Colombia’s war crimes tribunal

  • FARC reveals details of 1995 assassination of legendary conservative leader

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • RSS

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top