False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia

Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia1 Falsos positivos, ejecuciones extrajudiciales, homicidio de persona protegida y desaparición forzada en Colombia Hebert Mauricio Mejía Alfonso2 Universidad Libre Colombia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5007-6746 Rodolfo Alfonso Torregrosa Jiménez3 Universidad Libre Colombia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6369-8547 Norhy Esther Torregrosa Jiménez4 Universidad Libre Colombia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1445-2166 Recibido: 17-04-2024 Aceptado: 01-07-2024 Abstract During the last years, the indistinct and undifferentiated use of four terms related to serious violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian 1 This research article is the product of the research project of the doctoral thesis in law carried out at Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Comprehensive reparation criteria for victims of the crime of forced disappearance in Colombia in a context of transitional justice, in collaboration with the virtual Museum Project of Colombian Veterans of the Korean War at Universidad Libre de Colombia, Society an International Studies Research Group, categorized A. 2 ([email protected]) PhD in Law, Master in Political Studies, Specialist in Administrative Law, Sociologist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and lawyer from Universidad Libre de Colombia Research center Director Universidad Libre 3 PhD in Legal Sociology from Universidad Externado de Colombia, Master in Political Science from Universidad de Los Andes, Economist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 4 PhD in Law, Universidad Externado de Colombia; Master in Universidad Pedagógica, Universidad de La Salle; Master in Political Studies, Universidad Javeriana; Graduate in Social Science, Universidad de La Sabana. 548 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 Law (IHL) has made a career in different settings in our country, they are: Forced Disappearance, Homicide of a Protected Person, Extrajudicial or Extralegal Execution and the expression Positive False. The issue is of such relevance that the confusion has reached the Highest Courts, national and international Human Rights organizations, universities, and the media, among other scenarios. In these contexts, judicial decisions are made, reports on violation of Human Rights are presented, academic researchers are carried out, as well as journalistic columns or news events, which require a high level of socio-legal rigor in their analysis. The conceptual, theoretical, and politic differences of these terms related to serious violations of Human Rights are presented in these reflections. Keywords: Derecho humanitario, derechos humanos, justicia, responsabilidad del Estado, Instrumentos internacionales. Resumen Durante los últimos años, el uso indistinto e indiferenciado de cuatro términos relacionados con graves violaciones a los Derechos Humanos y al Derecho Internacional Humanitario (DIH) ha hecho carrera en diferentes escenarios de nuestro país, ellos son: Desaparición Forzada, Homicidio de Persona Protegida, Ejecución Extrajudicial o Extralegal y la expresión Positivo Falso. El tema es de tal relevancia que la confusión ha llegado a los más altos tribunales, organismos nacionales e internacionales de Derechos Humanos, universidades y medios de comunicación, entre otros escenarios. En estos contextos se toman decisiones judiciales, se presentan informes sobre violaciones a los Derechos Humanos, se realizan investigaciones académicas, así como columnas periodísticas o hechos noticiosos, que requieren de un alto nivel de rigor sociojurídico en su análisis. En estas reflexiones se presentan las diferencias conceptuales, teóricas y políticas de estos términos relacionados con graves violaciones de los Derechos Humanos. Palabras-clave: Falsos positivos, desaparición forzada, ejecución extrajudicial, ejecución extralegal. Introduction The misrepresentation, confusion or lack of conceptual precision and clarity in this political – legal categories, has implications of different order due to the effects on the citizens´ misperception of a specific crime and to the inadequate management of the “media” regarding the relationship that exists between serious “violations of Human Rights,” the internal armed conflict 549 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 and its actors. Also, in academic or politic circles of debate and discussion, and in judicial decisions issued (Arévalo et al, 2022), there is a confusion when thinking that the four categories marked have the same meaning. These concepts are mentioned equally, used interchangeably to refer to the detention, retention, arbitrary deprivation of liberty or disappearance of a person, who generally is found without life, in a scene of an alleged armed confrontation, or buried like a NN, in a cemetery, in a mass grave or that is presented to public opinion as a combat casualty. However, there exist serious consequences of not differentiating the seriousness of the fact that same practice is called or catalogued in different ways, or that terms are confused with each other, specially due to the seriousness of extrajudicial executions in the international context or the systematic and widespread practice of the crime of forced disappearance or, more recently, the homicide of protected person in Colombia. It is necessary to clarify that not in all cases, called as “extrajudicial executions” or “false positives”, we are facing with events related to forced disappearances, while some other cases can be classified as other crimes. We will be faced with a forced disappearance in the terms of Law 589 of 20005. A “forced disappearance” is configured when four elements are met: the victim is deprived of freedom (regardless of the form), is hidden, is denied and is removed from legal protection. The central concern is to identify the reason why the “crime of forced disappearance in Colombia” has been historically covered up and how, by not recognizing it as a widespread and systematic practice, violating Human Rights, in the development of the “internal armed conflict”, it has reached the highest rates of impunity. In spite of being typified as a crime, the revictimizing facts are reiterated and the Colombian society does not manage to dimension the magnitude of this flagellum, nor its inhuman results in the armed confrontation or outside of it. This hinders resilience, “in particular to justice and reparation that is the responsibility of the state and society,” Varona, G (2022). Its ignorance, misinformation and misrepresentation of its practice, have anesthetized us, despite the high number of direct and indirect victims, the permanent denial of its practice by the State and its institutions; ignoring the recognition and legal development it has had in recent years, especially since its classification as a crime in the year 2000. In other societies, which have moved from times of conflict to peace, the reaction has been different as they have expressed solidarity with the victims, have made an effort to search for them, have demanded the truth about their 5 “At the legislative and regulatory level, there is a set of mechanism to punish forced disappearance and ensure the search for missing persons. Laws 589 and 599 of 2000 classified the crime of forced disappearance.” (Sixth Review Chamber, Constitutional Court. Judgment T- 129 of 2022. Substantiating Magistrate: Gloria Stella Ortiz Delgado). 550 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 disappearance and the reason for committing it, have demanded justice for their cases and have been building reconciliation based on the recognition of their practice or commission by the perpetrators. In our society, the use of other names, terms, qualifiers or euphemisms to refer to what are actually forced disappearances blurs reality, delegitimizes the victims, re-victimizes them and their families, generates confusion in society and what is more serious, it distances society from those responsible, as active subjects or determiners, they are not socially, morally or legally sanctioned for this conduct, hence the high rates of impunity and re-victimization. Nor does it allow evidence of the negative impact along with the direction of resources and public goods allocated by national order entities to perpetuate or allow this practice to be perpetuated. It prevents victims and society from being compensated in a differentiated and comprehensive manner for the damage caused. For all of the above, the society in Colombia also has the right to know the truth and to guarantee the non-repetition of these violations. Part of the reasons for indifference are based on a practice aimed at ignoring or making the crime invisible, an issue which contributes with a meaningful work the informational stratagems of the “media” or the coverup speeches of those who have the legal duty to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for these behaviors. Another relevant aspect is the treatment of this criminal behavior by the Military Forces and the Police, despite the fact that in many of these cases are active members of their forces who are involved in their commission, in a State that prides itself on being democratic. A recent fact that reflects this situation is the case delivered by “Fiscalía General de la Nación” to “Justicia Especial para la Paz - JEP”, called “Muertes ilegítimamente presentadas como bajas en combate por agentes del Estado”, from which it is not possible to infer, from the outset, the commission of any type of criminal conduct, despite the majority of these cases are precisely cases of “forced disappearance”, which the “Fiscalía” also insists on calling “false positives” or “extrajudicial executions”, which according to the United Nations rapporteur Philip Alston, would exceed 10,000 cases in Colombia. This article seeks to raise the discussion around the need to identify and differentiate, through their main characteristics and the context where they are developed, what is known as “False Positives, Extrajudicial Executions, Homicide of a Protected Person and Enforced Disappearance”; pointing out their differences, describing the conceptual scope, legal framework and context in which each term should be legally used. We also argue that the “forced disappearance of persons” is not only a “crime against humanity”, it is also a State crime and as such it is socially invisible, unrecognized and its practice is denied; as Zaffaroni mentions “the 551 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 State crime is usually denied the fact itself, as in the case of the Holocaust by Nazism, it is claimed that the facts did not occur or were not as described” by the victims, among other techniques of neutralization6. 1. False Positive A “false positive”, in fact, is not a crime that is typified in the Criminal Code, nor is it an extrajudicial execution and much less is it the “crime of forced disappearance”, nor is it a legal technical term that leads to identify, represent, demonstrate or equate some criminal conduct. The “false positive” is not a violation of a human right, nor a violation of IHL, since it is, if it is wanted, a euphemism. The term “false positive” is used in the medical field to indicate “findings or evidence that were considered true are later proven false, the certainty or falsity depends on the observer’s ability to evaluate the evidence” in relation to what is intended to be proven (Fundación Revista de Medicina, 2012). This expression used recurrently to describe “violations of Human Rights” in Colombia has other linguistic scope referring to “justificatory use of violence”. 7 The result of a military operation is immediately and exaltedly shown as positive, which later, almost clandestinely, in silence, is proven to be false. The subjective expression “false positive” was spread since 2008 by the media, when complaints made by Secretary of the Government of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, Clara López Obregón, who was summoned to both, Bogotá City Council and House of Representatives for statements “against members of the Public Force” in the events that were taking place in Ciudad Bolívar. Both corporations criticized her and asked for her resignation considering that her version was hasty. The Deputy Prosecutor then sought to refute the complaint and Secretary of Government asserted in a categorical tone that there was no forced disappearance for homicide. The government and the media had to agree with her when the forced retirement of 28 high-ranking soldiers was ordered, and the complaints were ratified by the justice system that has handed down sentences for the “crime of forced disappearance” regarding those events consisting on disappearance of “19 missing young people who were between 17 and 32 years old, almost all of 6 “Neutralization techniques are understood as those methods used by those who commit a crime to justify their behavior, without openly opposing to the existence of a legal or social norm that sanctions them. With them the offender seeks to neutralize feelings of guilt. These techniques were worked on by Sykes and Matza and they are divided into five: denial of responsibility, denial of harm, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemner, and appeal to higher loyalties.” (Sykes & Matza, 2008). 7 “In Colombia, the murder of innocent civilians in the hands of soldiers who presented them as a guerrillas killed in combat, in order to obtain benefits or promotions, is known as “false positives”. (SWI, 2022). 552 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 them were unemployed or worked in trades such as construction and mechanics. They were, in general, humble young people who lived on the margins of Ciudad Bolívar, Altos de Cazucá, Soacha8 and Bosa;” later it would be known the cases occurred throughout the national territory. (Truth Commission). Revista Semana was one of the first media to use the expression False Positives: “False Positive Accounts: The Attorney General’s Office investigates more than 900 cases that occurred between 2007 and 2008, while the Prosecutor’s Office investigates another 716 complaints. This is how justice advances to establish the truth about extrajudicial executions. Until January 26, the Attorney General’s Office had 943 investigations, the majority for alleged crimes committed in Antioquia and Caquetá. And it has reopened 42 cases that the justice system had closed, 17 of them executed in the department of Antioquia.” And it continues “...Today the Prosecutor’s Office has 716 investigations, of which the majority of them are carried out in Antioquia and the Caribbean Cost” (…) (Revista Semana, 2009). The “UN special rapporteur, in a report presented after his visit to Colombia in June 2009, denounced that there is “a pattern of extrajudicial executions” and that impunity covers 98.5% of the cases: “My investigations found that members of Colombia’s security forces perpetrated a significant number of extrajudicial executions in a pattern that was repeated throughout the country. ... Although these killings were not committed as part of an official policy, I found many military units engaged in so-called “false positives,” in which victims were killed by the military, often for the soldiers’ personal gain or profit. Usually, the victims were lured under false promises by a recruiter to a remote area where they were killed by soldiers, who then reported that they had been killed in combat and manipulated the crime scene.” (UN, Report of May 27, 2010, by Philip Alston. Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Executions). It is pertinent to note that: “In this case of the missing youths in Soacha, a modus operandi of the perpetrators was also established, in which not only members of the security forces were involved, but also civilians who were in charge of recruiting and deceiving the youths, make them false promises and facilitate their transfer to the site of a “supposed job”, the recruiters put the military unit on alert so that in 8 “While the balance of the war began to tip in favor of the State, one of the most serious scandals regarding violation of Human Rights by the Military Forces in its history broke out. In 2008, the case of 19 young people from the municipality of Soacha and the locality of Ciudad Bolívar, in the south of Bogotá, who had appeared in a common grave in Ocaña, Norte de Santander, after being executed and presented as guerrillas killed in combat by the Army.” (Truth Commission). 553 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 a false checkpoint they would take them down and after leaving them without documents (“undocumenting” them) they would stage a false confrontation to pass them off as combat casualties, when in reality they were killed in a state of defenselessness.” (JEP-Special Justice for Peace). “Thus, the victims who had been deprived of their freedom by artificial means ended up disappearing, by deception they were taken out of their social context, with unknown destination, to hide them and refuse to give information of their whereabouts, removing them from the protection of the law, which was precisely what happened by leaving them without documents (“undocumenting” them), murdering them and burying them as N.N., hiding their personal objects that would allow the possible identification of the victims by the competent authorities, ensuring at all times that their crime would go unpunished.” (JEP- Special Justice for Peace). According to Serralvo, “under his political project of defense and security, a regulatory framework of incentives and stimuli was developed for the members of the Public Force, aimed at achieving military results against illegal armed groups. Within the framework of this policy and in the face of the demand, from the highest government authorities, to obtain quantitative results by the Army in the fight against armed groups.” (2020) As a consequence of public denunciation, the system of benefits or incentives for members of the Public Force was introduced to the legal system by means of the “Ospina Directive” from Minister of Defense Camilo Ospina. The purpose of Ministerial Directive 029 of 2005 was: “Define a ministerial policy that develops clear and defined criteria for the payment of rewards for the capture or killing in combat of leaders of illegal armed organizations, war material, intelligence or communications material and information on activities related to drug trafficking and payment of information that serves as a basis for the continuation of intelligence work and the subsequent planning of operations” (Ministry of National Defense, 2005, p. 1). On that occasion Juan Manuel Santos, Minister of Defense, faced with the scandal of the disappearance of young people in Soacha, created a transitory commission to analize “the operational circumstances surrounding these events and alleged homicides that were reported.” “The commission that was in charge of General Carlos Arturo Suárez Bustamante, chief of operations of the Military Forces in 2007 to 2008 and General Inspector of the Army in 2009, generated the so-called Suárez report, which described several cases of combat deaths reported by the Army that were denounced by people in the community as extrajudicial executions.” “The report resulted in separation of command to 27 Army officers for corruption in intelligence expenditures that were used to pay bounties.” (Final Report, Truth Commission). 554 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 Having contextualized the political scenario in which the expression “false positives” was born, we approach the concept from the linguistic analysis of the expression which has a meaning that goes beyond a simple press headline. For Pardo (2006), this expression disseminated by the mass media “is determined by a marker of subjectivity”, that is, there is in its creation a clear purpose “to show that people seemed to be linked to...” giving a certain characteristic to the individual, in this case, belonging to an illegal group, to justify the actions of the active subject. And it also has an additional linguistic burden, a “positive” is false because the objective does not “correspond to the action of killing” the subject, while, antagonistically, it can be concluded that when the “positive” is true, the homicide is considered legitimate, that is, when the deceased is an insurgent, it is positive to assassinate “Then in this context, this expression arises to hide the reality that state crimes are still in force, that they are a systematic, permanent reality, where the state has violated in all ways not only by killing civilians but that the state itself has participated by action or omission in crimes such as threats to civilians, selective killings, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, plundering of resources, among others”. (Melo Rodríguez & Rojas Mancipe, 2011, p. 129). When making a distinction of each word, from the linguistic point of view, Professor Pardo, emphasizes that “The ‘false’ is an attributive construction, and ‘positive’ shows that this person is executed on some assumptions that were believed”, definition in which the subjectivity load persists in the expression itself (Melo Rodríguez & Rojas Mancipe, 2011, p. 71). Up to this point it is clear that the concept was also used as a way to blur reality, to hide it, to disguise it. It is no coincidence that great confusion was generated from its diffusion in the media. 2. Extrajudicial Executions Although there are pronouncements by the international community about this illegal practice, the truth is that it has received much criticism for being an ambiguous and unclear term when determining or defining in an accurate way what this criminal conduct or violation of Human Rights is, especially for violating the right to life. The “extrajudicial execution9 does not have an express typification; 9 “Extrajudicial execution is a violation that can be consummated, in the exercise of the power of the State agent’s position, in an isolated manner, with or without political motivation, or more seriously, as an action derived from a pattern of an institutional nature. It is usually understood that the execution derives from an intentional action to arbitrarily deprive one or more persons of their life, on 555 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 however, the Manual on the Prevention and Effective Investigation of Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions of the United Nations (1991), specifies the patterns of macro criminality that must concur to determine whether a criminal conduct corresponds to an extrajudicial execution” (Judgment T-535 of 2015). It is configured if an authority arbitrarily or deliberately deprives the right to “the life of a human being in circumstances that do not correspond to the legitimate use of force. In general, two fundamental elements determine the constitution of this violation of Human Rights, the first is that the conduct must be imputable to public servants, the second is given to illegitimately attempt against life; which is a right that enjoys a special regime of protection in the American Convention10 and other international instruments, since from this the other rights of the human being are derived”. (Judgment T-535 of 2015). The real problem of these deficiencies becomes visible when punishing the perpetrators. The lack of criminalization of this crime in several countries, including Colombia, is an obstacle to investigating and convicting the perpetrators. Also, countries that have already criminalized extrajudicial execution, such as Guatemala11, face serious legal technical problems, since once the legislator gave legal life to this type of crime, criticism arose, inasmuch as the same offense could end up concurring with conduct that is already punishable. Additionally, the criminal sanction from the responsibility could favor the perpetrators of this crime, since it is lower than that of other serious crimes attempting against life. Other problems in Guatemalan lie is the fact that criminal offense drafted by the legislator is quite extensive and ambiguous, even including other independent criminal offenses such as “Torture and Enforced Disappearance”. the part of State agents or private individuals under their order, complicity or acquiescence; however, both in doctrine and in some legislation, different degrees of intentionality are accepted when those responsible are members of the State security forces”. Henderson, Humberto. 2006. La ejecución extrajudicial o el homicidio en las legislaciones de América Latina. IIDH Journal. 10 “The purpose of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons is to establish guidelines to which the domestic laws of the States that are part of the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights must adhere, with respect to forced disappearance. Although it does not intend to define or regulate the content and scope of such rights, it does impose certain duties on the States, as subjects obliged to protect them. Colombia approved the Convention through Law 707 of 2001. Judgment C-580 of 2002, Judge Rodrigo Escobar Gil clarified that the Inter- American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons is not strictly speaking a human rights treaty, but a mechanism for the eradication of the crime. However, it has a protective objective of the essential rights of persons in such a way that, in attention to that teleological criterion, the referred treaty recognizes human rights and establishes mechanisms that contribute to a great extent to their protection. Those additional guarantees of the Convention that are not expressed in the Constitution or directly attached to it, are part of the block of constitutionality in the broad sense, that is, they constitute parameters for the interpretation of the scope of Article 12 superior.)” (Judgment C-317 of 2002, Judge Clara Inés Vargas Hernández). 11 By means of Article 1 of Decree 48-95 of Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, approved June 15, 1995, Article 132 Bis was incorporated to Criminal Code of Guatemala, which gave life to the crime of Extrajudicial Execution. 562 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 Conclusions The cases of young people who disappeared in Soacha, Cundinamarca, were known as “false positives”, which consisted of a recruiter deceiving the victims with false promises of work, using trickery or force to take them to a remote place, where “shortly after arriving, members of the National Army” murdered the victim and then manipulated the scene of events by pretending that the victim had been “legitimately discharged in the heat of combat”. These victims were presented as guerrillas killed in operations by the security forces. The victims were “buried anonymously, as N.N., in mass graves, and the perpetrators received bonuses, permits and promotions for the results achieved in the fight against subversion”. The term false positive was propagated as a way to distort reality, to show and sell it with the sole objective of legitimizing the democratic security policy, to present it in the international context as a successful policy against terrorism and thus avoid international accusations of serious “Human Rights violations, however, State crimes” continued to be systematic and widespread. The indiscriminate use of euphemism “false positive” denaturalizes punishable conducts, the only ones susceptible to criminal sanction, reassures society by minimizing the seriousness of the facts and seeks not only to exonerate, but also to exalt those responsible for their efforts to guarantee the maintenance of the social and legal order. This also has an impact on the processes of social mobilization aimed at achieving “truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition”, since whoever mobilizes or denounces this type of crime may in turn be a victim of these conducts, fear, and the selection of the enemy frame the direction of the language towards the achievement of this objective. The “forced disappearance” of persons in Colombia “is a State crime” and its perpetrators resort to neutralization techniques to deny it, make it invisible or justify it as a result of the armed conformation that the country is experiencing, but above all with the intention of denying it, blurring it and trying to reduce its real magnitude and impact that it has had on Colombian society; where according to recent statistics today there are more than 170.372 direct and indirect victims of forced disappearances and the rate of impunity in these cases exceeds 90%. The conceptual and legal management of the analyzed categories allows a real application of the law for the benefit of the victims that would allow not only their recognition but also their due judgment; as shown by the Peace Implementation Agreement that calls it as a Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition, and which is developed according to three fundamental pillars. Ríos, J (2017) as well as, it would also propitiate the 563 False positives, extrajudicial executions, homicide of a protected person, and forced disappearance in Colombia Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 recognition and realization of the rights of the victims of this criminal practice in Colombia, especially in terms of truth and justice because as mentioned denial prevents knowing what actually happened to them and facilitates the impunity with which their victimizers operate. This reality in its assessment and judgment requires precision and foundation. Continuing in a swamp of confusion does not benefit the processes, the truth, the judgments, nor the people as victims or perpetrators, nor everyone, as components of a society requiring justice and truth. The media do not comply with the criteria of social responsibility and truthfulness of information, since their massive penetration in society constitutes a mechanism that impacts the perception of reality, in this case, softening or deviating the effects that the commission of these crimes has on public opinion. It is worth mentioning that the role of the media in these cases has two aspects; one, that in view of the evidence and the repeated denunciations by local authorities and victims, they had no other choice but to disseminate the information, that is, they made known the national scale in which these violations by members of the Army were taking place; and two, the use of euphemisms constitutes a sort of cover-up complicity with the State and the perpetrating agents, to minimize the negative impact that they cause in society. The media must return to the path of responsibility by delivering truthful and objective news to the community. They have the obligation to handle, in their products, with clarity and honesty, the concepts reviewed, since it is not correct to distort and confuse the consumers and the whole society, which requires its exercise in ethical and responsible manner. The four categories analyzed have no correspondence among themselves, of course they have no legal relation and they are different matters which are conceived or presented as the same fact and to which lately other typical conducts or euphemisms have been added, with the intention of distorting the reality of the “crime of forced disappearance”, which does not correspond to a new dynamic in the armed confrontation and its consequences, but to the continuity of a cycle of impunity perpetrated by the State with the intention of minimizing the reality of this systematic and generalized practice in Colombia. 564 Hebert M. Mejía, Rodolfo A. Torregrosa y Norhy E. Torregrosa Araucaria. Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofía, Política, Humanidades y Relaciones Internacionales, año 26, nº 57. Tercer cuatrimestre de 2024. Pp. 547-568. ISSN 1575-6823 e-ISSN 2340-2199 https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/araucaria.2024.i57.26 Bibliography Alston, P. (June 19, 2009). 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