The leadership of the now-defunct FARC guerrilla group acknowledged before Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal that they organized the forcible recruitment more than 18,000 children and minors between 1971 and 2016, year of its dissolution following the Havana Peace Accords.
This declaration, made within Case 07 investigating child recruitment and use in the armed conflict, constitutes one of the most significant admissions by former guerrilla high command regarding systematic practices that violated the rights of thousands of children, many from rural, peasant, and indigenous communities of Colombia.
Although ex-combatants did not mention sexual violence allegations in their statement, they requested unified legal proceedings and committed to undertaking reparations measures.
Ex-FARC leaders acknowledge systematic recruitment of children and minors in Colombia
During a public hearing before Colombia’s JEP transitional tribunal, six former commanders of the disbanded FARC guerrilla group admitted to recruiting at least 18,667 children and minor during the final 45 years of the illegal armed group’s existence.
In sessions held this week in Bogota, members of FARC’s final secretariat—comprising Rodrigo Londoño (Timochenko), Pastor Alape, Julián Gallo (Carlos Antonio Lozada), Rodrigo Granda, Milton de Jesús Toncel (Joaquín Gómez), and Jaime Alberto Parra (El Médico)—assumed collective responsibility for child recruitment and offered public apologies to victims and their families.
The ex-guerrillas described this practice as an “unjustifiable act” that caused irreversible harm to victims, their families, and the nation’s social fabric.
“We acknowledge with profound sorrow that recruiting and using minors was an unjustifiable act that irreversibly marked the lives of those involved, their families, and their communities,” states the joint communiqué from FARC’s final leadership.
The attendees affirmed that child recruitment constituted not only a grave breach of International Humanitarian Law but also a painful practice whose consequences endure.
“It was a collective wound that left deep scars on the social fabric. Though these actions occurred amid prolonged war rooted in historical state neglect, repression, and structural inequality, this does not make them any less a source of profound suffering,” their declaration noted.
Child recruitment: A systematic and prolonged FARC policy
According to JEP’s Order 019 of 2021, child recruitment was neither isolated nor the product of autonomous decisions by field commanders. Rather, it constituted a systematic policy defined by FARC’s leadership organs.
Despite internal protocols establishing a minimum recruitment age of 15, multiple reports document that this rule was systematically ignored or modified de facto, with many recruits being aged 11–14 or younger—aggravating the charges under international law.
Minors underwent military training, were forced to carry weapons, participate in combat, and endured severe disciplinary regimes including physical punishments and summary executions for disobedience or escape attempts.
During the hearing, several attendees acknowledged that “in the heat of war,” no effective mechanisms were established to verify combatants’ ages or ensure their well-being.
The tribunal emphasized that internal orders prohibiting recruitment under age 15 existed but were not effectively enforced, nor were violations investigated or punished.
Rodrigo Londoño, FARC’s final commander-in-chief and current leader of the Comunes party, admitted: “We failed profoundly as an organization and as human beings. No cause, however legitimate as it may seem, justifies involving children in war.”
Finally, the ex-FARC communiqué states they remain “committed to ensuring timely justice for victims that provides legal certainty for peace signatories. We reiterate the need for a single resolution of conclusions and the unification of different facts and conducts investigated by the Jurisdiction.”
Colombian victims demand full truth
Victims’ organizations considered the responsibility acknowledgment an important yet insufficient step. In their JEP testimonies, victims’ representatives insisted ex-commanders must provide greater detail about recruited minors’ living conditions—especially regarding sexual crimes allegedly committed against them.
For years, ex-combatants and human rights defenders have reported sexual violence within guerrilla ranks, including forced pregnancies, coerced abortions, sexual slavery, and brutal punishments by commanders.
A particularly controversial issue involves alleged unwritten policies mandating forced abortions for combatants, many underage.
However, during the three-day hearing, none of the six secretariat members explicitly mentioned these crimes. The silence was notable, especially given JEP’s documentation of over 500 testimonies linking sexual violence to child recruitment.
The JEP must now determine whether this response meets requirements for full, detailed, and consistent truth-telling that effectively contributes to the system’s restorative aims.
If so, the tribunal will schedule a public truth acknowledgment hearing. This could qualify ex-commanders for “characteristic sanctions” under transitional justice (non-custodial penalties focused on reparations, lasting 5–8 years). Otherwise, they face ordinary sanctions of up to 20 years’ imprisonment.
An ongoing process in Colombia
Case 07 remains one of the most sensitive proceedings in Colombia’s transitional justice system, currently in the phase of truth-telling and acknowledgement of responsibility.
The JEP must now assess the sincerity and thoroughness of the attendees’ contributions before deciding whether to impose restorative sanctions or refer the case to the Legal Situations Definition Chamber for potential ordinary penalties.
Magistrate Julieta Lemaitre, the case’s rapporteur, cautioned: “Acknowledging responsibility is essential, but the JEP must guarantee the right to full truth. If associated crimes remain unaddressed, the process loses legitimacy before victims and society.”
Victims now await future hearings to address these silences—particularly concerning the most intimate and under-documented violence that forever marked thousands of girls and adolescents.
As one victim testified during the hearing: “They recruited us, stole our childhood, and took from many of us the right to decide over our own bodies. There can be no peace without truth. And there can be no truth when the most horrific acts are silenced.”