A court set up to try crimes committed during Colombia’s half-century-long civil war between the government and armed groups handed down its first indictment on Wednesday for recruiting child soldiers.
Ten former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas have been charged with recruiting minors into their ranks, the Special Jurisdiction Court for the Peace (JEP) has announced.
The FARC, which signed a peace deal in 2016, “used the recruitment and use of women and children as a politico-military strategy,” Judge Raul Sánchez said. It was not stated how many children were included by the 10 co-defendants. Most of them were recruited in the late 1990s, and then from 2011 to 2017, the FARC laid down their arms.
read more: “We don’t want any more war”: In Colombia, an investment as a promise
Over 18,000 cases in fifty years
The judge cited the case of a 14-year-old tribal boy. Since August 2021, the JEP has been investigating cases of recruitment of more than 18,600 child soldiers during five decades of armed insurgency.
The ten co-defendants also face charges of using anti-personnel landmines and kidnapping members of tribal and farming communities. “They have also been charged with war crimes, murder, extrajudicial executions, displacement of people and destruction of the environment,” the court said in a statement.
In January 2021, five senior FARC commanders were accused of abducting more than 21,300 people between 1990 and 2016. They plead guilty and await sentencing.
Under the 2016 peace accord, the JEP can offer alternatives to prison terms for people who confess their crimes and pay restitution to victims. The court is expected to hand down its first sentence later this year.
read more: Revolutionary twilight among the FARC in “Red Jungle.”
Negotiations between Bogotá and the ELN will continue in Cuba
The Colombian government and ELN guerrillas will hold a third round of talks aimed at ending nearly six decades of armed conflict in Cuba, the parties announced in Mexico City on Wednesday. No date specified.
This new round is a continuation of the talks held in Mexico since February 13. In 2016, Havana held talks that led to the loosening of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s main guerrillas for years. “Our government is proud to accept the official request of President Gustavo Pedro and the government of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to continue negotiations in Havana,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Twitter.
The parties agreed to rotate negotiating countries, which saw “significant progress” in Mexico after the opening round in Venezuela. Although one of the aims of the talks is to lay the groundwork for a ceasefire, representatives have yet to report progress on this. Talks between the Colombian government and the ELN began in Havana in 2018 under the government of President Juan Manuel Santos (2010–2018), and ended in 2019 following a guerrilla attack by his successor Ivan Duque (2018–2022). A police academy in Bogota killed 23 people.
“Avid gamer. Social media geek. Proud troublemaker. Thinker. Travel fan. Problem solver.”