Colombia’s special peace court on Friday 13 November 2026 sentenced five former army members for 35 killings and disappearances of civilians who were falsely presented as enemy fighters killed in combat. The crimes took place in and around Dabeiba, a town in Antioquia province, and all five admitted their roles.
The sentences carry no prison time but five and a half to six and a half years of restrictions on their freedom and work for victims. The case rests mostly on the accused’s own confessions, El Espectador reported, and their cooperation helped recover 77 bodies.
What the Court Decided
The JEP’s Tribunal for Peace, the body that issues its sentences, found the five responsible for forced disappearance and murder as crimes against humanity, and for killing protected persons as a war crime, Semana, a Colombian news magazine, reported on 13 November. Magistrate Juan Ramón Martínez Vargas wrote the ruling, which covers 18 criminal events with 35 direct victims.
The five served in army units that included Counter-Guerrilla Battalions 79 and 26 (infantry units fighting guerrillas), El Espectador, a Colombian daily, reported. The newspaper also named Mobile Brigade 11, another army unit.
How the Crimes Worked
The court identified three patterns, El Espectador reported. In the first, soldiers killed local farmers falsely labelled as guerrilla collaborators, working together with paramilitaries, illegal armed groups that fought the guerrillas.
In the second, victims from places such as Turbo, a town in Antioquia, and from Medellín were lured to Dabeiba and killed. In the third, bodies were hidden in municipal cemeteries, including Las Mercedes in Dabeiba and one in Ituango, another Antioquia town.
What the Sentence Requires
The five must live under restrictions on their freedom while they carry out nine restorative projects in Antioquia, Semana reported. The projects include rebuilding roads and bridges, humanitarian demining, memory work, searching for missing people and farm projects.
Martínez Vargas said the sanction “is not impunity” but the heart of the transitional-justice model born of the peace agreement, in Semana’s account (our translation). Their cooperation helped recover 77 bodies at Las Mercedes cemetery, and 18 have been identified.
What It Means for You
This is a human-rights ruling, not a market event, and it shows how the peace deal’s court punishes soldiers who confess: with supervised work for victims rather than jail. El Tiempo, a Bogotá daily, put the longest sanction at up to six and a half years.
Our earlier reports track the same court’s other cases. They include charges against 12 former officers over a Medellín operation and sanctions on seven former FARC leaders.
What Is Not Known
Colombian outlets call this the JEP’s third sentence, but El Espectador’s own text calls it the second restorative one, so we do not number it. We could not open the court’s own statement, and the sources we reviewed do not say whether the ruling can be appealed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who did Colombia’s peace court sentence on 13 November?
Five former army members found responsible for 18 criminal events with 35 victims in Dabeiba, Antioquia. All five had confessed to the court.
Will the five go to prison?
No. They receive restorative sentences of about five and a half to six and a half years, with restrictions on their freedom while they work on projects for victims.
What are “false positives” in Colombia?
Killings of civilians by soldiers who then presented the victims as guerrillas killed in combat. In El Espectador’s account, Magistrate Juan Ramón Martínez Vargas said the killers picked victims they thought no one would search for.
What did the cooperation help uncover?
They helped recover 77 victims’ bodies at Las Mercedes cemetery in Dabeiba. Eighteen of them have been identified.
Sources: Semana, 13 November 2026; El Espectador, 13 November 2026; El Tiempo, 13 November 2026; Colombia news at The Rio Times.