2025-02-05
40 分钟This is the Guardian, the Guardian Archive.
Long Read My name is Mariana Palau and I am the author of the Guardian long reads piece the False Positive Scandal that Felled Colombia's Military Hero,
which was published in 2020.
There were two things I had in mind when I was thinking about writing the story.
One is that I wanted an international audience to know more about this, about the history of the scandal, because I also thought it told a lot about the history of Colombia,
which is absolutely fascinating and overlooked, but also about the history of a conflict, because I think that has, you know, it carries a lot of lessons for other countries as well.
And I felt like this was a scandal that was not very well known outside of Colombia
and I wanted an international audience to be able to know more about it.
But the main reason in reality was that Colombia, you know, signed the peace deal in 2016.
And at the time when I decided to write this,
it was supposed to be going through a process of implementation of that peace deal.
And part of that implementation involved a transitional justice system.
So for me, it was really important to look at a story that was kind of taking place even until that moment and continues to this day,
actually, since I wrote that piece.
General Montoya was indicted.
He was found to have some responsibility,
at least for the murder of at least 100 civilians who were killed as false positives.
And now he will likely appeal that indictment,
which will start a trial process in the transitional justice system.
So, you know, it remains to be seen what happens from that.