Colombia’s foreign minister told the United Nations’ security council that his country’s war crimes tribunal JEP should be “revised” in order to “perfect it.”
Without a revision, the JEP would be “derailing” from its purpose to offer truth, reparations and the guarantee of non-repetition to victims of the country’s armed conflict, according to Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva.
The appearances of those who have the right to this special justice has been limited,.. the accounts of the truth have been conditioned, closing and impeding the way for this, the truth, to fully reach the JEP, and the knowledge of the victims and public opinion in general.
Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva
In July, Leyva complained to the security council about “obstacles that impede the access of paramilitaries to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace” (JEP).
Demobilized former members of the now-defunct paramilitary organization AUC have been tried by the Justice and Peace transitional justice system since 2005.
This has complicated the surrender of former fighters and commanders of paramilitary groups and drug trafficking organizations to the JEP on multiple occasions.
The JEP is currently deliberating whether or not to assume investigations into crimes committed by the former commander of the AUC’s Central Bolivar Bloc (BCB), “Macaco.”
At an event organized by the Foreign Ministry, the former BCB commander said that he wanted to reveal his ties to top officials and state-run oil company Ecopetrol to the JEP.
Why “Macaco” matters to Colombia’s peace processes
Another former paramilitary commander, “Otoniel,” was extradited to the United States earlier this year after the JEP rejected his request for submission.
The mass extradition of former paramilitary chiefs has severely limited victims’ ability to seek justice for the crimes committed by the paramilitaries and their allies in the private sector and State institutions.
