Procesos restaurativos implementados por comparecientes de la fuerza pública en el subcaso Costa Caribe del Macro Caso 03 de la jurisdicción especial para la paz

Abstract

This research emerges from the professional practice experience carried out at the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia (Procuraduría General de la Nación), specifically within the delegate office for support to the JEP, where I carried out technical and documentary support tasks directly linked to Macro Case 03. Among the activities carried out were the transcription of hearings with appearing parties (comparecientes), the filing and organization of institutional documents, the preparation of materials for judicial proceedings, and the analysis of information extracted from the LEGALI-JEP software, a platform that consolidates data on appearing parties, victims, background information, and case facts. The transitional justice process in Colombia, which emerged after the signing of the 2016 Final Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP, represents one of the most complex institutional efforts in the country's recent history to address the serious human rights violations committed during the armed conflict. Within this framework, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) is established as a central venue for truth-seeking, the acknowledgment of responsibilities, and the implementation of measures aimed at the reparation and restoration of victims. The Commission for the Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition (CEV), whose mandate was to reconstruct the historical causes and responsibilities of the conflict from a broad, non-judicial perspective, concluded its work in 2022; the Search Unit for Missing Persons (UBPD), oriented toward the humanitarian location of victims of forced disappearance; and coordination with the Victims' Unit, the entity responsible for coordinating administrative measures of assistance, care, and reparation. Within the institutional structure of the JEP, 13 macro-cases have been developed, distinguishing the various situations related to the armed conflict in Colombia. This research analyzes the restorative processes implemented by members of the Armed Forces (Fuerza Pública) in the Caribbean Coast subcase within the framework of Macro Case 03 of the JEP. Macro Case 03 concerns homicides and enforced disappearances presented as combat casualties by state agents; it investigates crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces in association with paramilitary groups and third-party civilians, and highlights in particular the tensions between justice, truth, memory, and reparation. This macro-case not only addresses extremely serious acts such as extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and criminal alliances, but also raises the challenge of constructing restorative responses that acknowledge the harm caused, dignify the victims, and contribute to guarantees of non-repetition. Macro Case 03 allowed for direct engagement with the processes through which judicial truth is constructed and restorative justice is operationalized, revealing that behind every hearing lies an invisible technical framework composed of transcripts, documentary matrices, information cross-referencing, and timeline verifications that make it possible to track the truth commitments assumed by the appearing parties, contributing to the systematization process of the Caribbean Coast subcase corresponding to Macro Case 03. From a territorial and social standpoint, the Caribbean Coast Subcase takes on even greater depth because the violence did not affect only isolated individuals, but also families, rural communities, and Indigenous peoples, particularly the Wiwa and Kankuamo peoples. The JEP documented that the harm inflicted on these communities was severe, differentiated, and disproportionate, as it produced a breakdown of collective trust, the erosion of belief systems, and the impossibility of carrying out mourning practices in accordance with their cultural traditions. Among the 127 documented cases, at least 12 correspond to members of the Wiwa and Kankuamo peoples, including four young Wiwa individuals—among them a 13-year-old Indigenous girl who was pregnant—and nine Kankuamo men. This ethnic and territorial dimension deeply complicates the notion of reparation, as it demands differentiated, collective, cultural, and community-based approaches. In this context, the sociological perspective takes on particular relevance, offering tools for understanding the structural dynamics of the conflict, memory processes, and the social implications of restorative justice. The research made it possible to link categories such as collective memory, memory mechanisms, and structural violence with concrete experiences of institutional support, showing that restoration for victims cannot be understood solely as a legal outcome, but as a relational process that requires acknowledgment, historical contextualization, and the participation of the various actors involved. The paper seeks to analyze the restorative processes implemented by members of the Armed Forces in the Caribbean Coast subcase within the framework of Macro Case 03 conducted by the JEP.