Colombia Condemns Military Members for Extrajudicial Killings

Colombia condemned 18 military personnel including a lieutenant colonel Friday for killing five young men in 2008 as part of an extrajudicial execution program known as “false positives."

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The victims were from the town of Soacha, close to Bogota. They were murdered by military personnel who claimed the civilians were guerrilla members killed in combat.

According to a statement by the state’s attorney, the men were misled into believing they would be given work in the the municipality of Ocaña, Santander Department, which borders Venezuela.

Prosecutors concluded the young men "were taken by land and before arriving at their destination, were delivered to officers in several military checkpoints."

"On January 28, 2008, they were reported as killed in combat as narcoterrorists," according to the prosecutor’s statement.

A "false positive" in Colombia refers to the extrajudicial execution of civilians by soldiers. The soldiers would present the victims as guerrilla fighters killed in combat in order to seek promotions and bonuses.

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Former President Alvaro Uribe, the leading campaigner against the peace deal with the FARC, has been accused of having links to violent right-wing paramilitary groups and leading the “false positives” scandal. His term in office was marked by high levels of human rights abuses.

The executions led to the death of thousands of civilians, particularly the homeless and mentally ill, with the perpetrators dressing up victims in guerilla clothing in order to boost the government’s body count in the war against the rebels. More than 3,000 people are believed to have been killed this way during Uribe’s two terms in office.

The scandal came to light after the murder of young men and women in the Soacha and Ciudad Bolivar neighborhoods of the Colombian capital in 2008. The cases were first reported as missing people.

According to a report by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, the number of victims of "false positives" in Colombia could be as high as 5,000.