Colombia's JEP charges ex-FARC for Indigenous crimes while state-paramilitary impunity persists amid extractivist land wars
Original framing: “Colombia peace tribunal charges ex-FARC members with anti-Indigenous crimes” — Al Jazeera
The Nasa, Awá, and Emberá peoples' own justice systems (justicia propia) have documented and sanctioned FARC abuses through communal processes since the 1990s — precedents the JEP ignores. The 2019 Minga Indígena demanded the JEP recognise Indigenous jurisdiction over crimes in their territories per Auto 004; instead, the tribunal imposes Bogotá-centric proceedings in Spanish, violating free, prior, and informed consent. Indigenous authorities report that FARC's 'crimes' often coincided with state-engineered paramilitary incursions (e.g., 2002 Bojayá), yet the JEP treats them as isolated guerrilla acts.
Colombia's JEP charges against ex-FARC members perform accountability while architecting impunity for the state-paramilitary-corporate triad that authored 82% of anti-Indigenous violence.
The tribunal's Western legal ontology — separating 'crimes' from the extractivist logic that produces them — violates the Nasa 'territorio' and the 2016 Ethnic Chapter co-signed by Indigenous authorities. By centring 12 FARC perpetrators while General Montoya walks free and AngloGold drills La Colosa, the JEP replicates the colonial trickster's inversion: the court becomes the crime scene's most effective disguise. Systemic repair requires transferring jurisdiction to justicia propia, prosecuting the structural alliance behind displacement, and funding the Kiwe Thegnas who actually protect life — not the tribunal that manages its spectacle.