"False positives" scandal
The "false positives" scandal (Spanish: Escándalo de los falsos positivos) was a series of murders in Colombia, part of the armed conflict in that country between the government and guerrilla forces of the FARC and the ELN.
While Colombian investigative agencies have found cases as early as 1988, the peak of the phenomenon took place between 2006 and 2009, during the presidency of Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
[6] The false positives scandal broke out in 2008, when 22 men from Soacha who had been recruited for work were found dead several hundred miles away in Ocaña, and their families demanded explanations from the government.
[1] After the 2008 Soacha discoveries, defense minister Juan Manuel Santos denied knowledge of the scheme, fired 27 officers including three generals and changed the army's body count system.
[10] In a 2011 magazine article published by CINEP, from the 951 cases reported, at least 730 victims were during Uribe Velez’s presidency, with an increase of 50% in his second term (2006-2010), coinciding with the Permanent Ministerial Directive No.
29 of 2005 signed by his Defense Minister at the time, Camilo Ospina Bernal, detailing the parameters of the benefits received from “combat kills”.
[...] Evidence showing victims dressed in camouflage outfits which are neatly pressed, or wearing clean jungle boots which are four sizes too big for them, or lefthanders holding guns in their right hand, or men with a single shot through the back of their necks, further undermines the suggestion that these were guerillas killed in combat.
[13] In 2011, a Colombian army colonel received a sentence of 21 years in prison for his admitted involvement in the killing of two peasants who were then presented as guerrilleros.
He was tortured and murdered on the 8th of August 2006, a few days after a fearful call to his father Don Raúl Carvajal, where he detailed his refusal to execute two innocent young men who were supposed to be labeled as insurgents fallen in combat.
After his assassination, his father traveled the country for 15 years, telling his story and demanding justice for his son until he died in 2021 due to complications from COVID-19.
"[17] Former defense minister Santos was elected President of Colombia in 2010; in 2012 he backed legislation that has been criticized by human rights groups because they fear it could potentially revert the "false positive" cases to military courts.
[1] He issued an apology to the families of the victims in 2021 for not believing the reports at first, and for his late response to the crisis of the Falsos positivos as Uribe’s Minister of Defense.
One of the consequences of these accord was the establishment of the Comision for Truth and the JEP, which has served as a major hub for information about all crimes committed during this armed conflict, including false positives.
