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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2018 The Law of Justice and Peace and the Disappeared: a Critical Evaluation of Forensic Intervention as a Tool of Transitional Justice in Colombia María Alexandra López Cerquera University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation López Cerquera, María Alexandra, "The Law of Justice and Peace and the Disappeared: a Critical Evaluation of Forensic Intervention as a Tool of Transitional Justice in Colombia. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2018. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5322 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by María Alexandra López Cerquera entitled "The Law of Justice and Peace and the Disappeared: a Critical Evaluation of Forensic Intervention as a Tool of Transitional Justice in Colombia." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Dawnie W. Steadman, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Tricia R. Hepner, Jana Morgan, Amy Mundorff, Raja Swamy Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Law of Justice and Peace and the Disappeared: a Critical Evaluation of Forensic Intervention as a Tool of Transitional Justice in Colombia A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville María Alexandra López Cerquera December 2018 Copyright © by María Alexandra López Cerquera All rights reserved. ii To my husband and my parents who supported me in all stages of this research project. With special gratitude to the families of the disappeared who participated in this study whom I not only admire but also consider my friends. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank all the people in Colombia who made this research possible and all the interviewees who took the time to talk to me and shared their experiences and perspectives. I am especially in debt with the prosecutors who integrated me as another member of their forensic teams and allowed me to carry out my research without difficulties. I am also extremely grateful to the families of the disappeared in Meta who welcomed me and made me part of their lives. I would also like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee, especially to Dawnie for her suggestions and comments, and for always pushing me to work harder. To Amy, thank you very much for encouraging me to do research in my country. In addition, I would like to thank Sarah Wagner because despite not being part of my committee, she was a fundamental piece in the analysis of the results of my research. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge that this research was funded by the University of Tennessee Center for International Education’s McClure Scholarship and the Thomas Fellowship. I am grateful to the grant reviewers for believing in my project. Receiving their financial support was essential to the successful completion of this study. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional support and particularly to my father for being my inspiration and for teaching me that education is one of the great tools for change. iv ABSTRACT The first process of transitional justice in Colombia was implemented in 2005 through the Law of Justice and Peace (LJP) that focused on the demobilization of paramilitary groups under the government of Alvaro Uribe Vélez. Although the LJP has received multiple criticisms, state bureaucracy has portrayed forensic intervention as ‘the great success’ of the transitional justice process. In this dissertation, based on 11 months of ethnographic research in Colombia, I explore whether an efficient methodology existed on the part of forensic state agencies in order to find and identify the remains of forcibly disappeared persons and the role(s) that families have played in the forensic process from the investigation to the return of the remains of their relatives. Results indicate that despite the fact that there was a solid instrument like the National Search Plan for Disappeared Persons, the plan was irregularly and incompletely implemented. In fact, the search for the disappeared was mainly based on testimonial evidence provided by perpetrators, which was almost never verified and/or compared to other sources of information as it was assumed that the confession was true. This led to unmethodical archaeological recoveries and problems with the identification of remains as these almost always lacked a presumptive identity. Regarding the participation of families, results suggest that relatives have been treated more as sample donors than as active subjects in the forensic process. Finally, I examine if families’ perceptions of truth, justice and reparation have been fulfilled by forensic networks in the framework of the LJP. Results indicate that a ‘transitional friction’ occurs when the homogenizing concepts and ideas promoted by the discourse of transitional justice lift up particular understandings of truth, justice and reparation and ignore v local perceptions of victims and grassroots communities. Particularly, I highlight as problematic the fact that forensic evidence, and thus, ‘forensic truths’ have not been used to aid judiciary investigations to reveal the responsibilities in the perpetration of the crime of forced disappearance, thus contributing to the impunity that is still enjoyed by many state agents who participated in this and many other crimes perpetrated in the company of paramilitaries. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Human rights investigations, post-conflict intervention and forensic sciences ...................... 8 Project rationale and research questions .............................................................................. 13 Theoretical Orientations ....................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 2. METHODS ............................................................................................................. 21 Summers of 2015 and 2016: preliminary fieldwork .............................................................. 23 December of 2016 to July of 2017 ......................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 3. OVERVIEW OF THE PARAMILITARY VIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA ............ 35 The hatred against leftist political organizations is strengthened ........................................ 39 Massacres and Schools of Death ........................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 4. PARAMILITARY DEMOBILIZATION AND THE LAW OF JUSTICE AND PEACE: NEITHER JUSTICE NOR PEACE ................................................................................ 52 The beginning of negotiations ............................................................................................... 53 Implementation of the Law of Justice and Peace .................................................................. 56 Considerations of the Law of Justice and Peace eleven years after its implementation ....... 63 CHAPTER 5. THE PHENOMENON OF FORCED DISAPPEARANCE IN COLOMBIA ....... 75 International regulations ....................................................................................................... 76 National jurisprudence and the struggle of relatives of the disappeared ............................. 80 Periods associated with the practice of forced disappearance in Colombia ........................ 86 The complexities of counting the disappeared ...................................................................... 91 vii CHAPTER 6. FORENSIC INTERVENTION IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ‘JUSTICE AND PEACE’ ......................................................................................................................................... 95 The process of Justice and Peace urges the need to find the remains of disappeared persons presumed dead ....................................................................................................................... 96 Problems with confessions and other issues in the field ..................................................... 102 Disappeared persons buried in municipal cemeteries as unidentified cadavers ................ 114 Post-mortem examinations: identifying the disappeared .................................................... 123 ‘Dignified returns’ and the participation of families .......................................................... 132 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................ 139 CHAPTER 7. ASSUMPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF FORENSIC INTERVENTION 143 Assumptions from above .....................................................................................................

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