Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), the transitional justice body formed post-2016 accord, announced last Monday the closure of its macro-case 01 probe into ex-FARC kidnappings. The investigation identifies top and regional leaders responsible for thousands of cases during the armed conflict, a key step ten years after the 2016 peace agreement. This ends the investigative phase after years of collecting evidence, victim testimonies, and admissions, advancing cases to charges and sanctions.
This case encompasses hostages, grave deprivations of liberty, sexual violence, slavery, torture, and murders deemed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Such acts funded FARC, terrorized civilians, secured territory, and targeted adversaries across four decades. Investigators drew on 405 deponents testimonies and 795 victim accounts from over 80 hearings, creating Colombia’s most comprehensive judicial record on FARC kidnapping operations.
Kidnappings formed core FARC tactic
The FARC guerrilla, born in 1960s rural unrest, made kidnappings systematic by the 1980s-1990s. Victims including civilians, politicians, and foreigners suffered jungle camps with barbed wire, chains, and wooden crates for transport. The Eastern Bloc (15 charged leaders) and Southern Bloc (7 leaders) drew heaviest scrutiny, alongside seven Secretariat members, ten Joint Central Command figures, and heads from Noroccidental, Oriental, and Magdalena Medio blocs.
Magistrate Julieta Lemaitre, panel chair, outlined policy chains from design to execution. JEP President Alejandro Ramelli underscored organizational roles and victim trauma. In September 2025, the last Secretariat of the FARC accepted thousands of cases, earning JEP’s first sentence: eight years’ mobility restrictions plus truth obligations, sparing prison. Mid-level operatives await separate judgments.
As a reminder, JEP anchors the peace accord’s integrated truth-justice-reparation system, treating ex-combatants (guerrilleros and paramilitaries), state agents, and civilians alike.
Ex-FARC disputes slavery (forced labor) claims but upholds prior apologies. While former FARC leaders have apologized for kidnappings, they have disputed the tribunal’s characterization of some conduct as slavery, understood as forcing captives to perform labor while detained. An appeal instance is studying how the conduct should be classified.
In reality, the case launched amid 2018 formation struggles (funding battles and opposition) was only one of 11 macro-cases covering finances, violence, recruitment, civilian harms.
Ramelli anticipates 2026 sentence waves from the Peace Tribunal, blending restrictions, reparations, truth duties. Victims, including 2024 observers, press for pattern-impact reports extending to rank-and-file authors. Meanwhile, 88 lesser signatories advance resolutions; uncooperatives revert to ordinary courts. Worth noting, UN monitors JEP globally, critics flag delays, backers highlight victim access.
Hearings detailed captivity: isolation, malnutrition, forced marches, executions. Eastern Bloc detained hundreds; Southern struck remote areas. Commissions tally over 21,300 FARC kidnappings from 1982-2016; JEP pins specifics for reparations. However, families of unsolved cases demand acceleration.
The probe ends because JEP’s Recognition Chamber gathered sufficient evidence (victim statements, admissions, patterns) to charge leaders and shift to the Definition and Peace Tribunal phases for sanctions. This follows acknowledgment by charged parties, except three Eastern Bloc defendants the court says it cannot locate, enabling restorative justice over prison for cooperators, per accord terms. To date, 36 individuals appearing before the tribunal have acknowledged their responsibility toward their victims, according to the JEP.
The truth is, this closure delivers victims tangible acknowledgment after decades of impunity, mapping commands without exhaustive trials. To this day, JEP weighs truth versus penalty amid political strains. Tribunal outcomes will signal Colombia’s resolve for non-recurrence, shaping peace for generations ahead.