\n Seven leaders of the defunct Colombian guerrilla army FARC have begun searching for missing victims of the group's five-decade insurgency in line with a court sentence ordering them to make reparations, a court said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The seven men were convicted last year of war crimes and crimes against humanity over FARC's kidnapping of over 21,000 people between 1982 and 2016, when the rebels finally agreed to lay down arms.\n<\/p>\n
\n The peace tribunal set up under the 2016 peace deal ordered them to perform eight years of community service, including helping to locate missing victims of the conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Special Jurisdiction for Peace, known by its Spanish acronym JEP, said Wednesday the seven had begun on Monday to recover unidentified bodies from a cemetery in southeastern Huila department.\n<\/p>\n
\n JEP posted photos on X showing FARC's last leader, Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, alias Timochenko, and other leaders of what was once the biggest guerrilla group in the Americas, digging at a cemetery in the town of Pitalito.\n<\/p>\n
\n As part of their sentence, the seven must also engage in activities to promote healing, take part in mine clearance campaigns, remain within a specific area and wear electronic monitors.\n<\/p>\n
\n They received the maximum sentence provided for under the peace deal, which offers former guerrillas and paramilitaries who carried out atrocities alternatives to imprisonment if they admit responsibility and disclose the truth.\n<\/p>\n
\n The peace deal, which ended FARC's campaign of bombings, assassinations and kidnappings, continues to divide Colombians ten years later.\n<\/p>\n
\n The kidnappings in particular traumatized Colombians, many of whom rejected the deal, calling it too lenient on FARC.\n<\/p>\n
\n Current right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella is highly critical of the accord.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has vowed to crush the various armed groups that continue to engage in cocaine trafficking, extortion and illegal gold mining, including several dissident FARC factions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seven leaders of the defunct Colombian guerrilla army FARC have begun searching for missing victims of the group's five-decade insurgency in line with a court sentence ordering them to make reparations, a court said. The seven men were convicted last year of war crimes and crimes against humanity over FARC's kidnapping of over 21,000 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-165824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n