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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
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href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/colombia-false-positives-scandal-casualties-higher-thought-study?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/colombia-false-positives-scandal-casualties-higher-thought-study?CMP=share_btn_link</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Colombian army killed thousands more
civilians than reported, study claims<br>
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<div class="credits reader-credits">Joe Parkin Daniels - May 8,
2018<br>
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<p>Gloria Astrid Martínez last saw her son on the morning
of 8 February 2008. After breakfast, Daniel, 21, left
their home in Soacha, a downtrodden suburb of Colombia’s
capital, to start a new job working on wealthy
countryside estates.</p>
<p>“He told me he found a job that would pay so much I
wouldn’t have to work any more,” recalled Martínez. “It
sounded too good to be true, but he insisted, so he
left.”</p>
<p>Eight months later, Daniel’s body was found clothed in
jungle fatigues in a mass grave near the Venezuelan
border. Soldiers from the Colombian army had lured
Daniel with the promise of work to the city of Ocaña,
414 miles from Bogotá, where they murdered him and
declared him a rebel fighter in order to boost their
statistics in the war against leftist insurgents.</p>
<p>The inflated figures, dubbed “false positives”, were
used to justify US aid military packages while <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/colombian-army-killed-thousands-civilians-human-rights-watch"
data-link-name="in body link">the officers who carried
out the executions</a> were rewarded with promotions
and time off.</p>
<p>When news of the killings first broke 2008, the scandal
engulfed the Colombian military: dozens of senior
officers were fired, and many rank-and-file soldiers <a
draggable="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/28/colombia-arrest-army-general-henry-torres-false-positives"
data-link-name="in body link">went to prison</a>.<br
tabindex="-1">
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<p>But a new study co-authored by a former police colonel
alleges that the practice was far more widespread than
previously reported: according to authors Omar Rojas
Bolaños and Fabian Leonardo Benavides, approximately
10,000 civilians were executed by the army between 2002
and 2010 – more than three times the number tallied by
human rights groups.</p>
<p>In their book Extrajudicial Executions in <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/colombia"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Colombia</a>,
2002-2010 – Blind Obedience in Fictitious Battlefields,
the authors describe how Colombia’s army systematically
killed civilians to boost their body counts.</p>
<p>“We can call them ‘false positives’ or ‘extrajudicial
executions’, but really these were cold-blooded
murders,” said Rojas, who previously served 31 years as
a police officer. “They were meticulously planned and
carried by all ranks.” Rojas said disabled boys were
specifically targeted because of their vulnerability as
well as a handful of military men who were suspected of
whistleblowing.</p>
<p>“This isn’t just something that happened in the past:
we are still finding ‘false positive’ cases today,”
Rojas said. “It’s not with the same intensity as before,
and now they call them ‘military errors’.”</p>
<p>Colombia’s largest rebel group, the <a
draggable="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/farc"
data-link-name="in body link">Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia</a> (Farc), signed a peace deal
with the government in November 2016, formally ending 52
years of civil war that left 220,000 dead and over seven
million displaced, mostly civilians. State-aligned
paramilitaries and other leftwing groups contributed to
the bloodshed, with atrocities committed by all sides.</p>
<span></span>
<p>President Juan Manuel Santos – who was awarded the
Nobel peace prize for shepherding through the deal –
served as defense minister from 2006 until 2009, at the
the height of the “false positive” killings. </p>
<p>Activists say neither Santos nor his predecessor Álvaro
Uribe have been called to account over the scandal,
though Uribe faces several separate investigations over
alleged war crimes. A key witness in one case was
murdered in Medellín last month.</p>
<p>Colombia’s government has often brushed off the scandal
as the actions of a few rogue individuals.</p>
<p>“‘False positives’ were not just a problem of a few bad
apples,” said José Miguel Vivanco, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/americas"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag">Americas</a> director
at Human Rights Watch. “These apparently widespread and
systematic extrajudicial killings were committed by
troops attached to virtually all brigades in every
single army division across Colombia.”</p>
<p>The soldier who recruited Daniel is currently serving a
39-year sentence, along with many other middle and low
ranking officers. But not a single general has been
convicted.</p>
<p>For Martínez, who has received death threats over her
fight for justice, the impunity is galling.</p>
<p>“They say the pain of loss gets easier everyday but
that’s a lie, it gets worse,” she said, her voice
cracking. “The state should protect its people, not kill
them.”</p>
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