International

Colombian State to apologize for false positives in Soacha

Photo: CCJAR

September 28 |

Colombian human rights organizations confirmed Thursday that the Colombian State will publicly ask for forgiveness on October 3 for the false positive cases of the Soacha youths, killed in Catatumbo by members of the Army.

According to the organizers, the act of recognition of responsibility will take place in the Plaza de Bolivar and will be headed by the Colombian Minister of Defense himself, Ivan Velasquez.

Asociación Minga and Colectivo José Alvear Restrepo (Cajar), explained that the request for state pardon is framed within the restoration measures established by the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca in 2015, prior to the signing of the Peace Accords, within the case of victim Jaime Estiven Valencia Sanabria.

The act of recognition comes after several days of concertation and were managed to unlock under the Government of Gustavo Petro, stating that several measures were “insistently denied” by previous ministers.

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In this sense, from the Cajar explained that “…it is publicly acknowledged that State agents committed crimes that the high military commanders and the former President of the Republic during the period in which they happened, Alvaro Uribe Velez, have tried to minimize and even justify for years. We consider this one more step to confront the impunity that has surrounded these cases”.

El Cajar recalls that this is an “act of recognition of state responsibility” and “includes families covered by sentences of other courts in which the military forces and the National Army were ordered to make public apologies to the victims and society, as well as other victims of extrajudicial executions in which the justice system proved the responsibility of the State but did not order acts of public apology”.

The organizers explain that “although the pain of the families cannot be compensated with anything, this act of public apology can be reparative for them and, we hope, for Colombian society as well”.

They also recall the responsibility of “who was President of the Republic during the period in which they happened, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, (which) they have tried to minimize and even justify for years”, for which they consider “this is one more step to confront the impunity that has surrounded these cases, to honor the memory of those who today are not physically with us and to exalt the struggle of the families who, despite the difficulties to access justice, continue in their search”.

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