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Sala de audiencia judicial vacía en Colombia con estrado de madera, micrófonos y sillas para las víctimas bajo una luz sobria
Sala de audiencia vacía, imagen alusiva al reclamo de participación de las víctimas en las diligencias judiciales · Imagen generada para EPM

Sigifredo López seeks justice after 2022 JEP hearing video surfaces

Sigifredo López, the only survivor of the 12 Valle lawmakers kidnapped in 2002, reacted to the circulation of video from a 2022 hearing where he claimed the…

--- The context --- López was one of the 12 Valle del Cauca lawmakers kidnapped by the Farc on April 11, 2002, and he is the only survivor of that group. Eleven of his colleagues were murdered on June 18, 2007, while held captive, and López regained his freedom on February 5, 2009, after almost seven years in captivity. Since then he has demanded truth and justice. --- The facts --- The circulation of video from a 2022 hearing of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace revived that demand. In the recording, López claimed his right to represent himself and to put questions to former Farc members linked to the kidnapping and murder of his colleagues. A representative of the Public Ministry told him that the law did not prevent him from assuming his own representation, but asked him to respect the dialogic procedure that had governed the versions in macro-case 01 since 2018. López replied that he preferred to do it himself. Judge Julieta Lemaitre expressed her disagreement with the direction of the hearing and announced a recess to confer privately with the victims representatives. López said he felt his rights as a victim were being violated and raised the possibility of withdrawing if he could not exercise them, questioning a difference in treatment between those appearing and the people affected. The judge temporarily suspended the hearing and López accepted the suspension. --- The positions --- López said he has demanded justice for 17 years over the kidnapping and massacre of the Valle lawmakers and invited Colombians to support those who, in his account, seek to prevent the perpetrators from continuing to mock the victims. María Fernanda Cabal, who shared the recording, questioned the treatment López received and criticized the recess. María Clara Posada compared the 2022 hearing with a 2019 proceeding in which Lemaitre appeared smiling before Rodrigo Londoño, and López had questioned the judge impartiality on October 6. --- What remains unknown --- No response from Judge Lemaitre or from the jurisdiction to the published accusations is recorded, nor is any effect of the video on macro-case 01. In 2012 López was detained over accusations linking him to the planning of the kidnapping, he was later acquitted, and the Colombian state publicly asked him for forgiveness. On September 18, 2026, he questioned the budget and judicial results of the jurisdiction and announced a signature collection effort. --- Unanswered questions --- Will Judge Lemaitre or the jurisdiction respond to the accusations spread with the video? Will López be able to put his questions directly to those appearing in future macro-case 01 hearings? What effective guarantees will victims have to participate without the procedure limiting their voice? --- EPM analysis --- The episode exposes the tension between the dialogic design of the proceedings and the right of a victim to question, in person, those he holds responsible. A circulating fragment cannot settle that tension, but it obliges the institution to explain which rules govern victim participation and why. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the center of this story is not a viral video but a concrete debt: a victim who survived the kidnapping of the 12 lawmakers is still asking, after demanding justice for 17 years, to question those appearing directly. Transitional justice gains legitimacy when it explains its procedures and hears victims without unnecessary tutelage, and it loses legitimacy when its silences feed suspicion of unequal treatment. The tribunal should respond with facts, verifiable guarantees and the complete truth about the murder of the eleven lawmakers, because no procedural formula replaces the answer that López and the families have awaited for years.
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