this region, while the second refers to the acts or omissions of the State once these people were
displaced and in relation to their return. The second problem entails analyzing whether or not
the State assumed the task of guaranteeing the rights to physical integrity, to dignity, and to
the protection of the family, to protecting their rights without discrimination, and to the
protection of the rights of children and adolescents. In this section, the Court will analyze the
first issue and, in the following chapter, it will analyze the second (infra Chapter IX.2).
284. The facts of this case relate to situations that are characterized as internal forced
displacement543 that, in some case, then led the victims to displace to other countries. The
evidence indicates that most of those who crossed the border in search of international
protection or asylum did so to the Republic of Panama. The Court notes that the status of
displaced person of several of the presumed victims is not disputed, and that the State has only
contested the number of presumed victims displaced. The dispute regarding the facts is based
on the reasons for the displacement. While the representatives and the Commission indicate
that it was due to the paramilitary incursions and to the bombing during Operation Genesis
(supra para. 112), the State affirms that it was caused by actions of the FARC guerrilla and/or
that it was the result of confrontations between paramilitaries and FARC guerrillas that had
taken place on the territories of the Cacarica communities since before the events of the instant
case and, in particular, as of 1996 (supra para. 115).
285. The Commission and the representatives argue that the bombing could have been one of
the facts that, together with other acts of violence against the civilian population, caused the
forced displacements of the Cacarica inhabitants (supra para. 113). The Court has already
established that it has not been proved that the bombings carried out during Operation Genesis
directly endangered the life and personal integrity of the Cacarica communities (supra para.
240); moreover, the bombings occurred several kilometers from the Cacarica settlements.
Hence, the Court considers that it has not been provided with sufficient evidence to conclude
that the bombings during Operation Genesis were the direct and main cause of the forced
displacements.
286. Regarding the other hypotheses regarding the causes of the forced displacement, the
Court reiterates that the hypothesis according to which the FARC guerrilla was responsible for
the forced displacement is based on voluntary confessions544 that allude to the situation of
Cacarica in general and rather imprecisely and, regarding which, no information was provided
indicating whether or not the confessions had been verified by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
287. In addition, regarding the version according to which it was the confrontations between
the FARC guerrilla and the paramilitaries that had caused the displacement, the Court notes the
following: (a) the statements of the demobilized paramilitaries refer to confrontations in Bijao,
in Teguerre and on the banks of the Salaquí River, but do not mention other places or
communities where they could have been combats, and (b) the testimony of the inhabitants of
the region indicates that the causes of the displacement were the execution of Marino López
and the threats and acts of violence perpetrated by paramilitary units.545 Added to these
543
Internally displaced persons are undestood to be persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged
to flee or to leave their homes of places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or to avoid the effects of armed
confict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, and who have not crossed an internationallyrecognized State border. Cf. United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacements, U.N. Doc.
E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2 11 February 1998, para. 2. Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and nearby places v. El Salvador,
para. 187.
544
Cf. Fredy Rendón Herrera, Collective voluntary confessions of the candidates of the Elmer Cárdenas Bloc
concerning Operation Genesis – Cacarica before the Justice and Peace Unit, 48th Delegate Prosecutor, Medellín, April
28, 2010 (evidence file, folios 19157 to 19159), and Julio César Arce Graciano, Collective voluntary confessions of the
candidates of the Elmer Cárdenas Bloc concerning Operation Genesis – Cacarica before the Justice and Peace Unit, 48th
Delegate Prosecutor, Medellín, April 28, 2010 (evidence file, folio 19173).
545
Cf. Statement made by Emedelia Palacios Palacios before the Human Rights and International Humanitarian
Law Unit, February 10, 2007 (evidence file, folio 8923); Testimony of J.B.V.P. before the Prosecutor General’s Office,
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Unit, December 19, 2002 (evidence file, folio 619); Testimony of
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