When the Colombian Congress approved in July 2005 the justice and peace bill which gave a legal framework for the demobilization of paramilitaries, it is in the absence of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Pole (left). The political opposition has retired, for lack of guarantees. Rafael Pardo Rueda, former senator and member of this opposition, delivers in his latest work a synthesis of the paramilitary phenomenon in Colombia and returns to political risks and legal gaps opened by this controversial bill.
“” “We must prevent the“ paras ”to hide the truth and perpetuate false accusations “, Defeated Rafael Pardo Rueda in his last platform in the Colombian national daily El Tiempo. This is one of the former senator’s claims in his last test End del paramilitarismo, is postable on desmonte ? : “ End of paramilitarianism, its dismantling is possible ? ». A book devoted to the peace process engaged between the Colombian government and the paramilitaries.
Inveterate criticism of peace negotiations initiated since the first mandate of Alvaro Uibe in 2002, Rafael Pardo enjoys some experience in transitional justice. Economist, university professor, researcher and journalist, Rafael Pardo was also advisor to peace during the mandate of President Virgilio Barco (1986-1990) and led negotiations with four guerrillas in the country: the M-19, the People’s Liberation Army (EPL), the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (PRT) and the quintín blade. He assumed during the presidency of César Gaviria (1990-1994) the role of national security assessor and then was appointed Minister of Defense. During this period, he participated in the reform of the Colombian national police. Its name remains in particular attached to the creation of the special joint commando, or research block, set up for the pursuit and dismantling of the Medellín cartel led by Pablo Escobar.
The book has plunged us into 20 years of the history of paramilitarianism, since the constitution in the mid -1980s of peasant self -defense groups to fight against the expansion of the guerrillas, to the creation in 1997 by Carlos Castaño of the United Autdéfenses in Colombia (AUC), until the vote of law 975 of 2005, better known as justice and peace law, which gives a legal framework for the demobilization of paramilitaries. If the initial design of the paramilitaries is no longer the subject of debate – the redemption at low prices of fertile land abandoned by the peasants for fear of guerrilla warfare -, the contribution of this work is to show that there is no shared vision of paramilitarianism in Colombia, any more than there is consensus around its actions or around its values. The presentation of the different metamorphoses of the phenomenon, a policy at the start and then economic – largely fueled by the handling of drug trafficking – and finally strictly clientelist, however does not abstract the multiple massacres committed on civilians, no more than it occults one of the historical problems of Colombia: the absence of state presence in whole sides of the country.
It is to the justice and peace law that the author devotes the main part of his questions. Voted at the Colombian Congress in July 2005 in the absence of the opposition, Rafael Pardo denounces a secret pact between the government and the United Colombia self-defense whose judicial and non-extradition of paramilitary leaders constitute the substance. If the author recognizes the need to find a criminal alternative to the judgment of managers (the law opens the possibility of prison sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years for those who respect the terms), he attacks the preferential treatment granted to the high liabilitary losses as well as to the multiple gaps opened by law, in particular in matters of truth and reparation. In a country in conflict and when the talks are committed, the author is concerned about the risks of a Leonine agreement in which the paramilitaries use their influence, and wonders about the legal gaps left by the law on which the high courts of justice have had to rule.
Retrospective, the work is also prospective. As a roadmap, the reader will find at the end of the book eight proposals for “ Following paramilitarianism ». We will note, for us, some concrete and pragmatic proposals that come out of common places and miracle solutions presented during transitional justice processes, where justice and peace appear too often as irreconcilable objectives.