On a day when Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos ordered more than 6,000 FARC terrorists pardoned, and another 1,400 convicted FARC criminals released from prison, President and Senator Álvaro Uribe appealed for the Colombian military and citizens to be spared from prosecution by the International Criminal Court and the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).
According to preliminary data, the International Criminal Court is planning to bring charges against 23 Colombian generals and 6 colonels, retired and active, claiming that they committed more than 1,000 extra-judiciary executions during the armed conflict with FARC guerrillas. Uribe has argued that the court has no jurisdiction under Colombian law to prosecute its citizens.
Critics, however, have argued that the liberals are conducting a political witch hunt against Uribe, with the intention of hindering his party’s changes in the forthcoming 2018 presidential elections. They also argue that freeing FARC terrorists, while prosecuting member’s of Colombia’s military, would be immoral and wrong.
The FARC terrorist group was decimated during the presidency of Álvaro Uribe, losing more than 60% of their members. Over the period of 8 years, the terrorist group was driven from the country’s cities and forced to operate from remote jungle areas in the country’s southeast and Pacific coast. Uribe has been a critic of the country’s peace accords with the terrorist group, arguing that too much was conceded for too little in return.
