“False Positives” Scandal Unravels

On, July 13, Colonel Luis Fernando Borja’s sentence for murdering civilians in Colombia was reduced by half—from 42 years to 21. According to Borja, his unit murdered eleven citizens in 2007, dressed them in rebel attire, and proceeded to claim that the dead were enemy guerrillas. An increasingly common occurrence, this horrifying scenario came to be known as “false positive.” This scandal arose under President Álvaro Uribe, who incentivized the killing of rebels in exchange for prestige and promotions. Since 2002, an estimated 3,000 “false positives” have been identified.