The army in Colombia said sorry for mistakenly killing many innocent people and lying by saying they were left-wing fighters. They did this to make it seem like they were doing better in the war that happened in the country.
A study discovered that the military wrongly killed 6,402 innocent people between 2002 and 2008 and pretended they were rebels. This was known as “false positives”.
At a meeting with mothers of the victims, the defense minister called the killings “disgraceful”.
“They weren’t rebels,” he said.
The leader of the Colombian army, Luis Ospina, said that some soldiers did very bad things that should never have happened.
The people who were hurt were mostly young men who lived in poor areas near the capital city, Bogotá.
They were tempted with offers of jobs to go to the countryside of Colombia, but soldiers killed them. Then, they put on clothes like guerrilla soldiers or held weapons in their hands.
The army wanted to make it seem like they were winning against the Farc guerrilla group.
Soldiers have said that their bosses forced them to increase the number of people they killed. They were promised promotions or extra time off as a reward.
For a long time, the family members of the victims tried hard to make sure that everyone knows the true story of what happened to their loved ones.
On Tuesday, Colombia’s Minister of Defence, Iván Velásquez, said sorry to them in a gathering held in Bogotá’s main square.
“We are apologizing to the victims, to the Colombian society, and to the international community,” Mr.
Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president of Colombia and a former member of the M-19 rebel group, arrived late but also apologized for what he described as a “genocide”.
The family members of 19 young men who were killed near the Venezuelan border and mistaken as rebels were at the event.
Each person went up on the stage and said the name of someone they loved who had been killed.
Some people were sad that it took over 15 years for the apology to be given.
Some people said it should have come from the previous president Álvaro Uribe, who was in charge when most of the “false positives” happened, and his former defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos.
Florinda Hernández, whose son Elkin was killed in 2008, said that Juan Manuel Santos should have been there in person to apologize and ask for our forgiveness.
Lucero Carmona said that her family and she are not forgiving today, while Jackelin Castillo, who leads the group representing the mothers of the victims known as the “false positives,” said that their fight is not over. They will keep looking for the true culprits, the ones who ordered these crimes.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) is a special court system created as part of a peace agreement between the Colombian government and Farc rebels. It is currently investigating the “false positives” issue.
Over 700 security forces members have provided information, and in August, General Mario Montoya, the former leader of the Colombian army, was accused of orchestrating 130 “false positives”.