KIDNAPPING: FROM REBELS IN POLITICS TO CRIMINALS IN JUSTICE?* (CHRONICLE OF THE KIDNAPPING HEARING IN BOGOTÁ)

Abstract

This article traces the meaning and difficulties of assuming judicial responsibility for atrocities in transitional/restorative justice scenarios. In particular, it analyzes the acknowledgment hearing on kidnapping in which seven members of the last Secretariat of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) appeared (June 2022). In addition, a comparative look is presented between this hearing that took place in Bogotá and the previous hearing with former members of the National Army on extrajudicial killings, “false positives,” which occurred in Ocaña (Norte de Santander, April 2022). These two macro-processes, guided by the same transitional and restorative rationale, have had a format that has unfolded through the same procedural rituals.