This Sunday, in a solemn ceremony held in Santa Marta’s Plaza Bolívar, President Gustavo Petro led the recognition of the Colombian state’s international responsibility for the annihilation of the Patriotic Union (UP), in accordance with the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court).
The event brought together victims, relatives, survivors and government officials and was classified as a fundamental step in reparations ordered by an international court. However, the president used the ceremony to question the lack of involvement of other state institutions, which set the political tone of the meeting.
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In his speech, Petro openly questioned the absence of the heads of the High Court and Parliament who had been invited to the event. The President expressed his expectation that all powers of the nation would participate in an act that would represent fulfillment of the international condemnation.
“The state is the executive branch responsible for the public forces, the parliament of the republic and the judiciary,” Petro said, recalling that the Inter-American Court’s judgment was directed not only at the government but at the Colombian state as a whole.
He then regretted that no other heads of state attended, warning that “Here in Santa Marta, the center of the world, there is no president of the Court of Justice, no president of the Senate or House of Representatives. Everyone is invited.”
In a critical tone, the president asked himself, “What does this contempt for the nation mean, not only for a binding sentence, but also for genocide?”
This act of pardon came two years after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ conviction held the Colombian state responsible for 14 human rights violations committed within the framework of the eradication of the Patriotic Union.
The court found that between 1984 and 2000, 6,938 extremists of political movements were killed in events that constituted systematic extermination. The court noted in its judgment that these crimes were committed by state actors and third parties with state tolerance or acquiescence, and that state investigations were insufficient or non-existent.
As part of the reparation measures, the court ordered public acts acknowledging responsibility, the erection of monuments, the granting of financial compensation, and the promotion of spaces for historical remembrance and education.
Petro recalled that the Inter-American Court condemned the Colombian state on 14 grounds. The trial found him co-responsible for the murders of Patriotic Alliance militants.
“In its judgment, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemns the Colombian state on 14 grounds, citing joint responsibility for the murder of 6,938 fighters of Colombia’s leftist party, the Patriotic Union, between 1984 and 2000,” the president said.
As he emphasized, This act was not just a judicial formality, but a moral and political recognition of what had happened. Mr. Petro argued that the state must apologize to victims in accordance with the court’s order, but must also comply with other comprehensive compensation measures.
The President stressed that this political crime, committed over a decade, was one of the most serious genocides in Latin American history, and reiterated that the government has not shied away from the nation’s historical responsibility towards the victims.
The event in Santa Marta was held after Petro failed to attend an amnesty event scheduled for October 2024 in Bogotá. At the time, the president promised to implement the bill on another day, which he finally did this Sunday.
During the ceremony, Families of the victims held up photos and banners in memory of their loved ones.while fragments of international judgments are read out. The scenes reflected the long wait for justice and reparations by a movement that has left thousands murdered, disappeared and displaced.
The President asserted that national recognition should not remain as a symbolic act, but should be translated into concrete actions of compensation and guarantees to prevent recurrence.
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