Truth and Justice for Victims of Colombian Paramilitaries?

In mid-May 2008, Colombia extradited 14 violent, right-wing paramilitary/drug-trafficking bosses to the United States. The extradited paramilitaries -- all from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department -- are responsible for many of the worst human rights abuses in Colombia's recent blood-soaked past. Yet they weren't sent to the United States to be tried for their human rights crimes, but to face drug trafficking charges in U.S. federal courts.

At the time, supporters of the controversial move argued that at least the AUC leaders would be held accountable for something, somewhere; meanwhile, human rights groups saw it as a setback to their efforts against impunity in Colombia, and feared that the paramilitaries' victims' families would never find out what had happened to their loved ones. Now, more than 18 months after these Colombian Mafiosos arrived on U.S. soil, it's time to ask: will truth and justice be delivered for the victims of these abuses?

As a Magic 8-Ball might reply, "outlook not so good," at least not for the time being. But "magic" wasn't needed to predict the disastrous effects these extraditions would have on human rights in Colombia.

When they were extradited in 2008, the Colombian paramilitary bosses were in the midst of what's known as the Justice and Peace Process, a demobilization program that offered them short prison sentences if they laid down their weapons and owned up to their human rights abuses. Colombian investigators used the incentives provided by Justice and Peace to get the paramilitaries-turned-drug-lords to speak freely about the abuses they had committed. According to a recent report by the International Human Rights Law Clinic at UC-Berkeley, the investigators pieced together "rap" sheets that connected each individual AUC commander to a harrowing number of heinous crimes: 200 massacres to one, 450 homicides to another; dozens of murders of politicians to one, 768 forced disappearances to another; and on, and on, and on. As the evidence was mounting, the 14 AUC chiefs were roused in the early morning and put on a plane to the United States, where they are now imprisoned in five states and the District of Columbia.

Can you imagine the international outcry if, say, Slobodan Milosevic had been whisked away and sent to a foreign power for drug trafficking charges while he was being prosecuted for genocide and war crimes in The Hague?

Regrettably, the AUC leaders have stopped talking about their past violations of human rights and they've pulled out of the Justice and Peace Process, as well. Despite pressure from U.S. and Colombian advocacy groups, U.S. prosecutors so far aren't offering the kinds of incentives -- reduced sentences, protection for commanders' family members in Colombia, etc. -- that could encourage them to continue fessing up to their human rights violations, as some of them had been doing while imprisoned in Colombia. With no more truth-telling forthcoming, the Justice and Peace Process has ground to a halt in Colombia, although paramilitary "successor" groups continue to violate human rights and traffic illicit drugs.

As imperfect as the Justice and Peace investigations were, they at least offered the promise of helping to prevent future human rights violations by demonstrating that the violators would be held accountable for such brutal crimes. The legal proceedings would have also given victims' families access to the truth, a bitter solace to be sure, but something that, perhaps, could have become a healing balm for individuals and communities who'd suffered and lost much.

Yet, despite the grim outlook today, it's not too late for truth and justice for victims of paramilitaries in Colombia. Readers may recall that last year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was reported to have "reacted with disgust" after reading his department's account of CIA torture and prisoner abuse. The AG eventually opened a criminal investigation into the abuses because, ostensibly, he believed that the American public deserved to know what happened in these cases and that lawbreakers, no matter who they are and no matter what the political climate was when they broke the law, must be brought to justice.Human rights abuses in Colombia should be held to that same rule-of-law standard -- and the United States is in a prime position to ensure that happens. While its promised cooperation, as is required by international law, the U.S. Justice Department has in practice proved unwilling or unable to work with Colombian authorities and victims' families in sharing information and giving them access to their country's former tormenters. It's time for Attorney General Holder to change that.

*Author's Note: For more information on the extraditions of Colombian paramilitaries to the United States, and the possible legal avenues for holding these leaders accountable for their human rights crimes, check out a podcast discussion with Roxanna Altholz, author of the UC-Berkeley report Truth Behind Bars.

Photo Credit: kozumel