Colonel Hernando Pérez Molina was accepted into the JEP, would have promoted 'false positives'

Hernando Pérez Molina was commander of the Third Brigade and then the Third Division of the Army and is investigated for at least 17 cases of unlawful deaths presented as combat casualties, known as false positives, of which he would have been aware of and even allegedly promoted during his command.

The retired colonel submitted his request for submission to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) since September 2021, and was answered in recent days by the Room for the Definition of Legal Situations to assume the investigation of his proceedings, in addition to having been mentioned by several Army speakers.

Despite this situation, Pérez Molina, according to the W Radio station, presented himself as innocent and handed a document of contribution to the truth that did not fully convince the judge of the Chamber, Sandra Jeannette Castro, who asked him to provide a document with a more comprehensive contribution in the next 10 days.

The Chamber held that the name of the general has been mentioned in two 'false positives' files, in addition to those appearing in that case in the JEP, for executions of civilians in the departments of Cauca, Valle del Cauca and Caldas. There are at least 17 victims who could be related to Pérez Molina, whose perpetrators were members of the Infantry Battalion No. 23 Victores and Battalion No. 57 Martyrs de Puerres, who at that time were following his orders.

“Allegedly (Pérez Molina) not only encouraged the practice of such unlawful conduct, but also had prior or later knowledge of the circumstances in which they would be executed or how they were covered up, which led to preliminary investigations being initiated against them by the Prosecutor's Offices,” quoted the newspaper El Espectador del submission document.

The Chamber considers that the general could be responsible for such executions for both active and omissive conduct, since he would have even congratulated his subordinates after committing them and were allegedly committed under pressure of results from the colonel himself.

Colonel Robinson Gonzalez del Rio mentioned the retiring colonel on orders issued to prioritize deaths as operational outcomes. “There should be no catches, what there must be are low hands, after being a bandit, everything that is a bandit dies. So when he tells me that (González accusing the general) that everything that is a bandit dies and the truth like that was the doctrine that was lived at that time in the army,” González said in 2014 as quoted by W Radio.

One of the cases for which Pérez Molina is investigated is the death of two innocent people on the road that leads from Cartago to Cali in Valle del Cauca, in 2005. The victims were Deibi David Orozco Útima, 22, and Heber Antony Palacio, 15, who were presented as combat casualties.

For these events, Colonel José Alejandro Forero Besil, then commander of Battalion No. 23, was condemned, who gave the order that “the Army does not need captures, but casualties”, when he was under the command of Pérez Molina.

As established by the Prosecutor's Office, on May 14, 2005, the two young men were forcibly removed by soldiers from Bastion No. 4 platoon, led by Lieutenant Julián García Peña, from a farm known as El Bosque, where the victims worked as laborers and where the military arrived in an alleged operation against the FARC.

Soldier Mauricio Alberto Tabares Rincón said in testimony that after the “capture” of the two young men, Lieutenant Julián García Peña contacted his superiors in the Vencedores Battalion to report the capture of two FARC guerrillas. The answer was that “the order was that no captures were needed, but casualties. That order was given by the commander of the Battalion.”

The Prosecutor's Office established that after the death the scene was altered to simulate combat and the battalion commander and the then chief of operations were present at the modification of the transfer records to make the alleged operation legality.

Orozco Utima was shot five times and Antony Palacio three came through his neck and back. Lieutenant Peña García and the soldiers of Platoon No. 4 received congratulations, Major Jimmy Antonio Coral Burbano received congratulations and adjustments to his resume; while Colonel Alejandro Forero Besil received a congratulation emanating from the Army Command, from the Bogotá Ministry of Defense.

Lieutenant Peña Garcia and the soldiers of Platoon No. 4 received congratulations, Major Jimmy Antonio Coral Burbano received congratulations and adjustments to his resume. For his part, Colonel Alejandro Forero Besil received a congratulation emanating from the Army Command, from the Bogotá Ministry of Defense.

Other cases have to do with the death of Joan David Vargas and Herley Iván Jamioy, in May 2005 in the village of Valesillos de Zarzal, according to the newspaper El Espectador, among others that number 17 cases that Pérez Molina would have known.

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