From the Strategic Litigation Area, we reject the appointment of Brigadier General (R) Alejandro Navas Ramos as Governor in charge in the department of Arauca, a situation that directly affects the rights to truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition of the victims of State crimes.
This is due to the fact that Brigadier General (R) Navas Ramos is linked to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace as a result of his alleged responsibility in the commission of the practice of murders and forced disappearances illegitimately presented as combat casualties, commonly known as “false positives” that occurred in the municipality of Dabeiba, Antioquia[1].
Alejandro Navas Ramos, while a colonel, was commander of the Voltígeros battalion of the Army’s 17th Brigade, based in Carepa, Urabá, Antioquia. Military unit implicated in the cases of extrajudicial executions whose victims are still unidentified in the Mercedes cemetery.
But the alleged responsibility of the Brigadier General (R) does not end here. The reports “Unearthing the Truth in the Eastern Plains” and “We Continue Unearthing the Truth in the Eastern Plains” presented by the member organizations of the Strategic Litigation Area, the Lawyer Collective José Alvear Restrepo, the Orlando Fals Borda Socio-legal Collective, and the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, before the Chamber for the Recognition of Truth, Responsibility, and Determination of Facts and Conduct in 2019 and 2020 respectively, give an account of Navas Ramos’ trajectory in the Eastern Plains region, which was tainted by the report of false operational results as a consequence of simulated combats sustained by the troops under his command.
In all the years of his military career and from the positions held by Alejandro Navas Ramos, some at the regional and others at the national level, the practice of assassinations and forced disappearances illegitimately presented as combat casualties were maintained over time and consolidated in the way it was carried out from the planning, execution, and concealment of the facts.
Thus, when he held the position of Chief of Staff and second commander of the Seventh Brigade, a major operational unit attached to the Fourth Division of the National Army with jurisdiction in the Eastern Plains region, between December 1999 and November 2000, there is knowledge of a victim of extrajudicial executions.
Subsequently, between December 2004 and October 2006, he was appointed as commander of the Rapid Deployment Force, a special military unit that depended hierarchically and operationally on the Joint Task Force Omega. After this extended period of time in this military unit, he was promoted as commander of Joint Task Force Omega, between November 2006 and November 2008. In these periods and under his jurisdiction in both units, the number of these crimes was 17 cases with 29 victims according to the information gathered to date.
Despite this, his military career continued to rise. In 2008 he was appointed commander of the Special Forces Brigade; from 2010 until 2011 he served as commander of the National Army and, between 2011 and 2013 he was commander of the Military Forces.
Although complaint actions were initiated by victims, communities, and human rights organizations, Alejandro Navas Ramos never left the public sphere. In fact, in 2013 he was appointed as Colombia’s ambassador to Argentina, and, finally, in 2017 he was appointed general manager of Indumil.
The appointment of BG (R) Alejandro Navas Ramos as governor of Arauca is yet another example of the current national government’s lack of commitment to the fulfillment of victims’ rights and the effective implementation of the Peace Accord.
The human rights organizations that are members of the Strategic Litigation Area have insisted in the reports submitted to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace on the adoption of precautionary measures to prevent any member of the National Army linked to false positive cases from remaining in state institutions holding public office until they have complied with the commitments acquired in the framework of their submission to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Otherwise, this constitutes a risk to the physical and emotional integrity of the victims of State crimes and, in general, of the civilian population under its jurisdiction.
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