Colombia’s deputy Defense Minister Sergio Jaramillo said that the ‘false
positives’ phenomenon has been made bigger than it really is.
“Until today I have not received any reports that families of ‘false positives’ victims are being threatened by the military”, Jaramillo responded to the statement of UN rapporteur Philip Alston who noted that ‘false positives’ became a systematic practice which not only affected Soacha but also 13 other departments of Colombia.
Jaramillo stressed that the “false positives” cases have been made bigger as they are and that the government has taken necessary measures to prevent such “irregularities”.
“We are aware that the phenomenon goes beyond the case of Soacha and therefore established with Minister Santos in 2007 a committee […] When we noticed cases that were not only cruel but did not fit in any possible explanation, we sent a committee to the area,” Jaramillo said.
The deputy Minister added that there is no firm criteria to establish which of the investigations known are just allegations and which are real.
Until a person is not convicted at trial, we cannot be sure that these crimes were committed, Jaramillo stressed.
Prosecutor General Mario Iguaran told Radio Caracol Friday that more than thousand cases of killings allegedly committed by members of security forces have been reported to the authorities.
The PG added that extrajudicial killings have occured in almost all departments of Colombia, especially in Antioquia, Meta, Casanare and Cesar.
