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Progress in Colombia as former Farc leader granted amnesty
Once known as the 'foreign minister of Farc’ and today a leader of the Comunes party, Rodrigo Granda had been sentenced to jail time on charges of rebellion in April 2006 — now these have been dropped, reports PEOPLE’S DISPATCH
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ON Monday October 24, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) granted amnesty to Rodrigo Granda, a former leader of the demobilised guerilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), who was convicted of rebellion.
Granda was convicted in April 2006 by the third criminal court of the Cucuta Circuit, in the Norte de Santander department. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison.
After ratifying the political nature of the crime, the JEP ordered the withdrawal of criminal and accessory sanctions against Granda, as well as of his fiscal, disciplinary or criminal record.
The JEP resolution stated that Granda would continue to be investigated by the Chamber of Recognition of Truth and Responsibility in the 27 cases against him for other crimes that occurred during the five-decade war between the guerilla forces and the Colombian state.
He will also not be allowed to leave the country without prior authorisation from the JEP.
Granda has been fighting for peace and social change in Colombia since the 1970s.
In 1971, he joined the Communist Party. In 1997, Granda became a member of the Farc’s central general staff, which was originally formed to fight against peasant loss of farmland and the concentration of land ownership with cattle ranchers and urban industrialists.
He represented the organisation on various trips and events abroad. Granda was known as “the foreign minister of the Farc.”
He was a part of the Farc delegation in the peace process, which led to the signing of the Havana Peace Agreements between the Farc and the government of then-president Juan Manuel Santos in November 2016.
Granda is now a member in the national board of the Comunes party, which emerged after the disarmament of the Farc as a part of the peace agreements.
The JEP was also created under the peace agreements. It is a transitional justice system to investigate, judge and sentence all those considered responsible for the crimes committed during the internal armed conflict.
This article appeared on peoplesdispatch.org.
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