{"id":4513,"date":"2021-02-01T21:25:19","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=4513"},"modified":"2021-02-01T21:25:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T21:25:19","slug":"columbia-court-charges-former-farc-commanders-with-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2021\/02\/01\/columbia-court-charges-former-farc-commanders-with-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia court charges former FARC commanders with war crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to article:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/1\/28\/colombia-court-charges-former-farc-commanders-with-war-crimes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis:<\/strong> Columbia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a tribunal created under the 2016 peace deal to prosecute former FARC’s members and military leaders for alleged war crimes, accused eight former commanders of war crimes and crimes against humanity for taking hostages during the country’s internal armed conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time since the signing of the 2016 peace deal that the JEP has attributed criminal responsibility to former leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), which was demolished to reintegrate with society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JEP stated, in a statement read by magistrate Julieta Lemaitre, that “Depriving people of their freedom and setting conditions for their release, as well as their well-being, integrity, and life, was a war crime, especially the taking of hostages”. In addition to the already stated charges, the former commanders are also charged with other war crimes connected with the treatment of kidnap victims, including murder and torture, among other things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the commanders accept the accusations, they will face restrictions on their freedoms for five to eight years. However, if they reject them and are found guilty, they could face up to twenty years in jail per the terms of the peace deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no immediate response from the commanders, but the kidnapping victims say they continue to suffer from mental health damage caused by the physical and emotional suffering they were subjected to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Columbian conflict left 260,000 dead and millions displaced. FARC fighters and commanders used kidnapping to fund their war against the state. They also captured military and government personnel to pressure authorities into releasing jailed rebels. These acts of violence including murder, kidnapping, imprisonment, and torture are war crimes and crimes against humanity that can not go unpunished. Perpetrators of such crimes need to feel the ramification of their actions for the sake of their victims and for the sake of justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I saw the charges the FARC commanders were accused of I was surprised at the relative leniency of their sentences. If the commanders accept their accusations they face restrictions on their freedoms for five to eight years. If they reject their accusations, and are found guilty, they could face up to twenty years in jail. In comparison, in some states in the US, if a victim of kidnapping is physically harmed in any manner the crime qualifies for capital punishment. After comparing the two choices for punishment, I was left wondering if the US is too harsh in its sentences or Columbia too lenient?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When looking at this conflict in terms of Cold War State-Centered Geopolitics, a period of reawakened geopolitical thought during the Cold War as the globe became a virtual chessboard between the western democratic and the communist worlds, linkage theory could be applicable. This theory was devised by Henry Kissinger in the 1970s explained that all the trouble spots in the world were directly connected to the Soviet Union. The reason this theory is applicable is because Columbia’s government was, and still is, democratic while the FARC was formed during the Cold War as a Marxist-Leninist force promoting communist ideologies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to article: https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2021\/1\/28\/colombia-court-charges-former-farc-commanders-with-war-crimes Analysis: Columbia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a tribunal created under the 2016 peace deal to prosecute former FARC’s members and military leaders for alleged war crimes, accused eight former commanders of war crimes and crimes against humanity for taking hostages during the country’s internal armed conflict. This is the first time since the signing of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4514,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}