How cuts under Colombia’s de la Espriella threaten a key human rights court

Bogota, Colombia – Angela Cordon was only a teenager when her father and uncle disappeared. They were among a string of farmers and merchants to go missing in the southwestern department of Huila in Colombia. First came her uncle Reynaldo Cordon Herrera's kidnapping. A grocer by trade, he had been travelling by truck on January 22, 2003, when he went missing. The next month, Guillermo Cordon Herrera — Angela's father — set out to discover what happened to his brother, tracing his whereabouts through rural Colombia. Guillermo called home one night with news: He had made contact with the rebel fighters he believed to be responsible for his brother's abduction. It was the last time his family would ever hear from him. His body was never found, nor was his brother's. Angela's father and uncle are among the more than 450,664 people killed as part of Colombia's six-decade-long internal armed conflict. In the 23 years since their disappearance, Angela and her family have sought any information they could find about their loved ones' last days. "I have dedicated my life to this search," she told Al Jazeera. She credits one institution in particular with helping her find answers: Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), a transitional justice court. Set up in 2016 as part of a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group at the time, the court handles the prosecution and investigation of crimes committed during the conflict. But victims, their loved ones and even some former fighters fear that budget cuts could gut JEP, leaving the court unable to fulfil its mission. This month, the administration of right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella announced it would enact a 2027 budget with dramatic reductions for government bodies like JEP. The total cuts to JEP were valued at around 181 billion Colombian pesos, or roughly $57m. On Wednesday, a Senate committee also advanced a bill to eliminate JEP altogether by March 2028, with a proposal to transfer its functions to the general court system. Angela, however, credits JEP with offering closure that the criminal justice system was never able to provide. She worries that slashing the court's funding — much less shuttering it entirely — could derail its work. Through JEP, Angela learned about her father and uncle's time in captivity, as well as the site of their execution. JEP has also worked with former FARC members to try to locate their remains. "Fewer resources mean fewer missions to the field to find answers, less humanitarian personnel," Angela said, bracing for the cuts. "It probably means that we will never be able to return to the site."