A Bogotá court issued the first sentence against six former military personnel involved in extrajudicial killings, known in Colombia as false positives. The events in question occurred between 2006 and 2008, during the internal armed conflict.
According to the investigation, the victims were falsely presented as guerrillas killed in combat, in order to demonstrate operational results and obtain benefits within the military. The court determined that the defendants acted in a systematic and coordinated manner.
The sentence was issued after several years of investigation and is part of the proceedings conducted by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) and the ordinary courts, which have received thousands of testimonies and evidence about the magnitude of these crimes.
The case sets a precedent in the judicial recognition of the responsibility of senior officers and subordinates in these practices. Future rulings are expected to contribute to clarifying the more than 6,400 deaths reported as false positives in Colombia during the most intense years of the armed conflict.