In this article, it discusses the false positive scandal in Colombia where there have been recent discoveries. In Colombia over the past half century, the government has been fighting against left-wing guerrilla groups know as FARC and ELN, it was also found that the government colluded with right-wing guerrilla group AUC to attack FARC and ELN. In recent investigations, it was discovered that the Colombian military lured poor and mentally impaired civilians into remote parts of the country with promises of work, then proceeded to massacre them and count them as members of FARC or ELN to boost the body count of their "war". The article describes that in a recent tribunal, they exhumed the mass graves of the massacre sites to find the deaths of the civilians was 6,402, which is almost three times higher than what the attorney general previously admitted to. After soldiers slaughtered these civilians, they were given promotions and other perks like paid time off for giving the government an increase in the kill statistics. It is horrifying to see this happen in the 21st century, but not surprising as this resembles the work of another US ally in Central America, the Contras. Seeing as fighting just recently stopped in 2016 and this discovery was the work of the peace tribunal, this could set the negotiations back. It is important to remember the atrocities committed against left-wing groups by the Colombian government as this may also lead to higher tensions between Colombia and their left-wing neighbor Venezuela.
Luke Kwiatkowski
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/19/colombia-farc-tribunal-false-positives
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