The FARC party apologises for the first time for the recruitment of minors and the kidnappings: "It was a very serious mistake"

Four years after silencing its rifles, the party born of the FARC has decided to face up to the past and acknowledge its mistakes, something that until now had never happened. For the first time, the top leaders of the former guerrilla leadership, led by Rodrigo Londoño, alias Timochenko, have apologised to the kidnap victims and their families. "We want to tell them that the kidnapping was a very serious mistake that we can only regret," they acknowledged in a statement to which Atalayar had access. 

The oldest guerrilla organisation in the Americas demobilised after the signing of the peace agreement, laid down its arms, except for a few minority groups of dissidents, submitted to the JEP, the court responsible for judging the most serious crimes of the war, and became a political party. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve that much longed-for peace that Colombians have been calling for for over fifty years. 

The FARC's public pardon comes after a talk between former presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt and Father Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission. In the speech, the kidnapping victim who had been deprived of her freedom for more than six years said that "kidnapping is the murder of identity because the person dies slowly and if he is lucky enough to be freed, when he comes out of that ordeal alive, he realises that he is someone else". And he warned that the former FARC guerrillas still have immense difficulty in saying that it was a kidnapping that they did and not a detention". So far, the JEP has investigated the crime of kidnapping in 9,000 victimizing events that occurred between 1993 and 2012, committed by the FARC-EP; 2,312 victims have been accredited, among them Ingrid Betancourt, and 350 former guerrillas have reported to this justice system.

This is in addition to the fact that last week, the former guerrilla leaders were criticised because in their voluntary statements to the JEP they stated that the recruitment of minors, another of the crimes for which they are answerable to the Colombian justice system, had not been a policy within their organisation. The ex-combatants admit that systematic kidnapping was an attack not only on freedom but also on the dignity of the victims. "Today we understand the pain we cause to so many families - sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers and friends - who lived through hell waiting for news of their loved ones; imagining if they would be healthy and in what conditions they would be subjected to follow life far from their affections, their projects, their worlds. We took from them the most precious thing: their freedom and dignity. We can imagine the deep pain and anguish of the sons and daughters of so many kidnapped by the FARC-EP", the text points out.

This letter comes at a particularly delicate time for the implementation of the peace agreements agreed in Havana, and in the face of a society still deeply divided. As regards legislation, of the 107 laws needed to implement the peace agreement, 66 have been issued, four of them during the two years of Ivan Duque's government. Following this anniversary, thirteen members of Congress presented a report assessing the challenges of implementing what has been achieved with the former guerrilla, particularly in the two years remaining of President Ivan Duque's mandate. "It is essential to make progress in implementing the Peace Agreement, otherwise we are going to lose the historic opportunity to take advantage of the end of the war to transform the territories most affected by the conflict and prevent new conflicts from arising," the representative to the House, Juanita Goebertus, told Atalayar.

The congressmen, in a report, show that the point of the agreement that is lagging behind the most is the Comprehensive Rural Reform. So far, 15 of the 36 laws considered necessary for this point have been signed. Another concern is the murders of former FARC combatants. As of 13 July, 210 former guerrilla fighters who had taken advantage of the agreement and were in the process of being reintegrated into society have died. This week the figure rose to 224. The congressmen also reported that violence had increased during the quarantine. "The situation of displacement is extremely serious; in 2020 there was an increase of 96.8 percent," Goebertus says.

The process that the victims have gone through, such as former presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt, actually reflects that this pain is unimaginable. But the admission of guilt, the signs of repentance such as those expressed in this letter, represent a decisive step towards reconciliation in Colombia, beyond the forgiveness that is an intimate and individual act of those affected. "We can only reiterate our commitment and willingness to render an account before the courts, to explain why and how, and to commit ourselves before Colombian society, which today more than ever is demanding justice and truth for so much violence," the party leaders said.