The presence of President-elect Gustavo Petro and the absence of Iván Duque, represented by his Minister of the Interior, Daniel Palacios, reflects the division that has existed in Colombia regarding the Truth Commission since its inception. Hence, the presentation of the final report, which has been held in a theater in the center of Bogotá, has had moments that will sting some social and political sectors, especially the Army and Uribismo.
In his speech, the Jesuit father Francisco de Roux, head of the aforementioned entity, said that, during the three years of work, they have dedicated themselves to “listening and welcoming the pain of the victims, which does not need interpretations, and to seek and try to explain why these events occurred, and who is responsible”.
He has argued that the analyzed horror, which spans sixty years, has been of such magnitude that it would take the country seventeen years to dedicate a minute to honor each of the thousands of victims, the vast majority of whom are civilians. “Why do we let this tearing apart of ourselves go?” he asked her. “How can we say that we are human when all this is part of us? How dare we let it happen and how do we allow it to continue?”
Although he has mentioned the different crimes of paramilitaries and guerrillas, among others, he has only delved into the so-called “false positives”, when the military assassinated civilians to present them as subversives killed in combat, a barbarity that the left blames the Álvaro Uribe’s security policy.
“There was no written order, but the feeling was to be doing what the institution wanted,” he said. “This was persistent corporate behavior. State officials broke the law and presented what was evil as triumph,” she said. “Who gave the order? Why did it go to such barbarity? Why didn’t they intervene?” Questions that were addressed, without mentioning them, to Uribe and his military leadership.
The study concludes that the highest rates of violence occurred between 1995 and 2005, a period in which 75% of the victims occurred. He has highlighted the “ethical value of the Havana agreement”, sealed by Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londoño, fruit of which the Commission he chairs was born.
There are ten volumes that will be released from this Tuesday until the end of August. Likewise, they will disseminate the recommendations of the Commission so that the country may one day experience peace, a document that has been delivered to Gustavo Petro, president that the priest considers suitable to deepen the peace agreement with the FARC.
“It is my first public intervention after that Sunday”, Petro pointed out in his speech. “The approach to the truth cannot be considered as a space for revenge, an extension of the same weapons turned words, turned stories, narrations of so many people who built this report. It has to be seen as the contribution of one of the institutions of peace, as the possibility of reconciliation”.
He added that his government has raised “expectations of a great peace”, but has warned “how many peace processes we have signed and how many times we have returned to violence. Definitively cutting the cycles of violence implies cutting the cycles of revenge. If we turn the space of truth into a space of reconciliation, into the possibility of social forgiveness, of an era of peace”.
Once the Truth Commission concludes its work in August, another entity will be created whose mission is to monitor, for seven years, the implementation of its recommendations.
“The Commission is a disgrace. A memorandum exalting terrorism and the ritual of enthroning guilt throughout Colombian society,” Enrique Gómez Hurtado, former presidential candidate for the conservative National Salvation, tells EL MUNDO. “The victims must apologize to the perpetrators.”
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