Many Colombians have expressed concern that demobilised rebels may join criminal gangs and continue their involvement in the drugs trade, one of the main sources of funding for the Farc.
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While attempting to offer as much amnesty as possible, the courts would impose sharply reduced sentences for those who admit guilt and exclude from amnesty any war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The leader of Colombia’s largest rebel group, Farc has announced a halt to the rebels’ military training.
The killing is the biggest security success for Santos since the death in 2011 of Alfonso Cano, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group (FARC).
Colombia can not punish Marxist guerrillas for war crimes as severely as a few would like if the country wants a peace deal to end a 50-year conflict that has killed almost a quarter million people, President Juan Manuel Santos told Reuters on Wednesday.
The bodies were taken to Legal Medicine for identification, since they suffered disfiguring injuries in the bombing.
A years-long manhunt for a ruthless cocaine warlord who ruled a remote rural fiefdom with an armed band and generous bribes has ended with a military raid that killed the man considered Colombia’s second most-wanted criminal.
The agreement stipulates that a newly created Tribunal for Peace – made up of Colombian and worldwide judges – will consider legal cases against guerrillas and collect testimony and evidence to determine compensations.
Santos also promised that Colombians will vote on the final deal in a referendum, something he says he is not legally required to do.
“While the special jurisdiction would encourage confessions, it would also allow those most responsible for mass atrocities to completely avoid prison, denying their victims the right to justice in any meaningful sense of the word”, Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW’s Americas director, said in a statement.
Santos said the deal on justice is a sacrifice worth paying to ensure there is no more bloodshed.
Santos said he was surprised by the cordiality of rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, when they met for the first time last week in Cuba and shook hands. “Is it a reasonable price to pay? As an organization we charge a war tax”, he said at the time. And the answer is, of course it is, by far.
“Mr. Uribe does not support the peace process because he lives from manipulating fear” to maintain power, President Santos said.
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“Given our planned date of the signing of the peace accords (March 2016), next year when I return to speak before the General Assembly, I will – God willing – be speaking as the President of a Colombia at peace”, Santos said.
