[1] In 2002 the government of former President Alvaro Uribe and the High Commissioner for Peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, began a process that would give a legal framework in which armed groups outside the law as paramilitary United Self Defense Forces of Colombia and guerrillas surrendered their weapons and reintegrate into civil society in what is known as demobilization.
In 2003 the Defense Forces of Colombia signed an agreement with the government of demobilization in which 30,000 members of the armed organization and its commanders cease operations.
Between 2005 and 2006 the country adopted a legislative framework that allows for the prosecution and sentencing of members of illegal armed groups which had benefited from demobilization processes.
The Attorney General Mario Iguaran said his office intends to continue with all processes involving possible criminal activity not confessed and acted upon in this case as both crimes against demobilized later, if necessary.
Human Rights Watch believes that the Court's decision was a great corrective, solving a number of serious problems and gaps that existed in the original bill.