How cuts under Colombia’s de la Espriella threaten a key human rights court
News Source
•Fri, 30 Oct 2026 17:43:21 +0000
📰 What Happened
Colombia's government announced a 2027 budget that cuts about 181 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $57m) from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), and on Wednesday a Senate committee advanced a bill that would eliminate the court entirely by March 2028. Victims such as Angela Cordon, whose father and uncle disappeared in Huila in 2003, say the cuts will end the field missions that were finally giving families answers about where their relatives' remains lie.
🔍 The Backstory
The JEP was created under the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC to investigate and prosecute crimes committed during a conflict that killed more than 450,000 people. President Abelardo de la Espriella argues the cuts are needed to control debt above $370bn, but his 2027 budget of about 634 trillion pesos is the largest in Colombia's history and raises overall spending, leading critics to question the austerity rationale.
🎯 Why It Matters
The court is the main channel through which victims of war crimes, including extrajudicial killings by the army, have obtained truth and burial sites, so defunding it risks stranding thousands of open cases. The move also tests how durable the 2016 peace settlement is, with former FARC fighters and human rights groups warning that dismantling the tribunal could undermine the guarantees that persuaded rebels to disarm.
Colombia's government announced a 2027 budget that cuts about 181 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $57m) from the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), and on Wednesday a Senate committee advanced a bill that would eliminate the court entirely by March 2028. Victims such as Angela Cordon, whose father and uncle disappeared in Huila in 2003, say the cuts will end the field missions that were finally giving families answers about where their relatives' remains lie.
The JEP was created under the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC to investigate and prosecute crimes committed during a conflict that killed more than 450,000 people. President Abelardo de la Espriella argues the cuts are needed to control debt above $370bn, but his 2027 budget of about 634 trillion pesos is the largest in Colombia's history and raises overall spending, leading critics to question the austerity rationale.
The court is the main channel through which victims of war crimes, including extrajudicial killings by the army, have obtained truth and burial sites, so defunding it risks stranding thousands of open cases. The move also tests how durable the 2016 peace settlement is, with former FARC fighters and human rights groups warning that dismantling the tribunal could undermine the guarantees that persuaded rebels to disarm.