A landmark ruling confronts decades of military abuses.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia. Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has sentenced five former military personnel for their involvement in killing and forcibly disappearing 35 civilians who were falsely presented as guerrilla fighters killed in combat. The November 13 ruling addresses 18 criminal incidents in the northwestern department of Antioquia and represents another significant development in Colombia’s transitional justice process.
The convicted former officers are Edie Pinzón Turcios, Hermes Mauricio Alvarado Sáchica and Efraín Enrique Prada Correa, alongside noncommissioned officers Jaime Coral Trujillo and William Andrés Capera Vargas.
Their sentences range from approximately five and a half to six and a half years. Rather than conventional imprisonment, the court imposed restorative sanctions requiring community service, restrictions on movement and judicial supervision. These measures followed the defendants’ acknowledgment of responsibility and cooperation with investigators.
The crimes belong to Colombia’s notorious false positives scandal, in which members of the security forces murdered civilians and misrepresented them as combatants killed during military operations. The practice was associated with institutional pressure to demonstrate battlefield results.
The JEP established that at least 6,402 people were victims of these extrajudicial killings between 2002 and 2008, during the administration of former President Álvaro Uribe.
The latest judgment concerns crimes committed in Dabeiba and surrounding areas, where investigations uncovered patterns of unlawful killings, forced disappearances and the concealment of victims’ remains.
Information provided by former military personnel helped investigators recover 77 bodies from the Las Mercedes cemetery in Dabeiba. Eighteen victims have been identified, and 17 have been returned to their families.
The five convicted men must now participate in nine restorative projects, including humanitarian demining, rebuilding rural roads and bridges, searching for missing persons and supporting initiatives that preserve victims’ memories.
The sanctions are designed to combine accountability with reparations, a central principle of the transitional justice system established following Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Nevertheless, restorative sentencing remains a subject of public debate. Supporters emphasize truth, acknowledgment and tangible reparations, while critics question whether restrictions and community service adequately reflect the gravity of crimes against humanity.
For victims’ families, the judgment represents an official acknowledgment of crimes that were concealed for years. Its longer-term significance will depend on the effective implementation of reparations and continued efforts to identify those still missing.
Beyond the Headlines, Accountability Matters.