JEP charges 10 former FARC guerrillas with crimes against Amazonian indigenous peoples
Colombia's Peace Tribunal charged ten former members of the FARC with crimes against humanity against five indigenous Amazonian peoples between 1996 and 2016.
Colombian Peace Tribunal accuses former FARC members of extermination and torture against indigenous peoples
Colombia's Peace Tribunal formalised charges on Tuesday against ten former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated against five indigenous Amazonian peoples, according to apnews.com.
Judge Catalina Díaz stated to the press: "Today we deliver justice for the most forgotten peoples of segregated Colombia... who have seen their basic right to exist compromised".
The investigation determined that the Nükak Baká, Korebajü or Koreguaje, Siona or Zio Bain, Hitnü and Jiw peoples suffered, between 1996 and 2016, crimes of extermination, torture, murder, persecution, forced disappearance, displacement, use of anti-personnel mines and environmental damage.
Among the ten charged are three former members of the guerrilla's last leadership: Milton de Jesús Toncel, alias "Joaquín Gómez"; Jaime Alberto Parra Rodríguez, alias "El Médico", and Julián Gallo Cubillos, alias "Carlos Antonio Lozada". All operated in the regions of the Colombian Amazon and Orinoco.
The tribunal noted that none of the accused had previously been investigated by ordinary justice for crimes committed against Amazonian indigenous communities.
Yhon Jairo Figueroa, representative of the Koreguaje people, described what was experienced: "For many years we suffered in silence, they silenced our word... they burned our malokas (houses). It was not just war, it was an attempt at extermination".
According to the investigation's conclusions, the FARC systematically attacked indigenous leaders—including educators, traditional doctors and chiefs—accused of collaborating with enemy forces, which resulted in executions and disappearances. In 1997, insurgents entered an indigenous reserve in Milán, Caquetá department, and murdered seven Koreguaje leaders, triggering massive forced displacement.
The guerrilla organisation also deployed anti-personnel mines and explosives in indigenous territories, with consequences including deaths, injuries, displacement and restrictions on the daily life of communities. Additionally, the bombing of oil pipelines caused crude oil spills and fires that contaminated rivers and destroyed sacred sites.
A former guerrilla whose identity was protected by the tribunal expressed during a hearing held in October 2025: "I want to ask forgiveness from mother earth and nature and the communities that inhabited those territories where that crude oil spill occurred because they were affected, their waterways, their waters and their territory were contaminated".
Figueroa valued the institutional recognition: "We are grateful because for the first time the Colombian State recognises that... it is not only that a person is killed, but that an attempt is made to kill the knowledge, the language and the territory".
The ten former guerrillas appear before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the tribunal created following the peace agreement signed a decade ago between the FARC and the Colombian State to judge crimes of the internal conflict. The charged must accept or reject the charges: those who accept could receive sanctions without prison, conditional on their participation in reparations projects for victims; those who reject them face trial with sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Source: Google News BO — La Paz