JEP cites colonel (r) Gonzalo Enrique Lizcano, former commander of the Pedro Justo Berrío Battalion, to declare for false positives

Colonel (r) Gonzalo Enrique Lizcano Valero was called before the Reconnaissance Chamber of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to give that body his testimony regarding the cases of the so-called false acts that occurred at the hands of uniformed members of the Pedro Justo Berrío Battalion. Lizcano commanded that space in 2004.

The document in which the request is made it is described that for that period of time, “acts constituting deaths and enforced disappearances illegitimately presented in combat caused” were filed. According to the JEP, different speakers, including six colonels, have referred to that battalion in their testimonies. Likewise, victims of these violent acts have spoken of that place when they testified about the cases of extrajudicial executions that occurred between 2004 and 2005.

“In view of the foregoing, those members of the security forces in respect of whom the Chamber has received information regarding their possible involvement in crimes committed during the non-international armed conflict and have not appeared in the Jurisdiction to sign an Act of Commitment may be called to appear to appear for contribute, among others, to the clarification of the full truth”, the document states. Lizcano Valero, then, will be heard in audiences that will take place between May 2 and 5 from eight in the morning, virtually.

The name of the colonel is remembered because, around 2011, the Office of the Attorney General firmly suspended his tenure, without the right to remuneration, to him and Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Andrés Suárez Segura, for irregularly filing disciplinary inquiries that were being carried out over allegations of executions extrajudicial, advanced in the Infantry Battalion of No. 32 General Pedro Justo Berrío.

The Public Prosecutor's Office showed that the sanctioned officers, in order to close the investigations, only took into account operational orders, maneuvering schemes, lessons learned and the statements of some military personnel involved in the operations.

According to the Attorney General's Office, there was an omission on the part of the officers “when they stopped delving into ostensibly abnormal aspects surrounding the deaths reported as having occurred in combat.” “They did not even care to establish the identity of those killed in the alleged fighting or their alleged membership in armed groups outside the law,” concluded the Disciplinary Chamber of the supervisory body.

Colonel Lizcano Valero, then, was removed from office for a month, while Suárez Segura received a 20-day sanction. “Not only did they constitute a threat to the administration of disciplinary justice, but they really affected it by making decisions as wrong as the archive (...) that denature the reason for the service provided by the sanctioned and call into question an entire institution as honorable as the National Army”, determined the Living room.

This is parallel to what happened in recent days in Putumayo, where, after an operation by the National Army, the community claims that civilians were killed as criminals. The operation was carried out on Monday, March 28. General Juan Carlos Correa Consuegra, commander of the Army's Division of Aviation and Air Assault, explained that it was an operation carried out under strict protocols and that it began to be carried out ten days ago.

“All the protocols and processes required by military operations, both in the doctrinal and legal aspects, the operation lasts ten days that our men spend day and night trying to reach that structure 48, the combat was quite strong, there was heavy fire,” said Juan Carlos Correa, commander of the Assault Aviation Division Air of the National Army, in an interview with W Radio.

The Minister of Defense, Diego Molano. “Thanks to offensive operations by the public forces, which continue to be developed, against FARC dissidents, we neutralized 9 criminals — a figure that later rose to 11 — and captured 4 more in Puerto Leguizamo, Putumayo,” the official wrote on Twitter.

The National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), for these events, called on the National Army to murder civilians in the form of “false positives”.

In the document presented by the organization, they quote the media outlet Andrés Prensa, in which they interviewed relatives of the deceased: “They indicate that the Army arrived at the village where some inhabitants of the area were holding a bazaar in a communal booth, adjacent to a football field used by neighbors. That this activity was to collect funds to meet the needs of the same village”, the complaint reads.

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