Colombia peace court faces deep budget cuts as war-crimes victims fear justice will stall

Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella has pledged to slash spending on the JEP, the country's transitional justice court. His administration announced this month that it would enact a 2027 budget with dramatic reductions for government bodies like the JEP.

The total cuts to the JEP were valued at around 181 billion Colombian pesos, or roughly $57 million. On Wednesday, a Senate committee also advanced a bill to eliminate the JEP altogether by March 2028, with a proposal to transfer its functions to the general court system.

The JEP was set up in 2016 as part of a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), then the country's largest rebel group. The court handles the prosecution and investigation of crimes committed during Colombia's six-decade internal armed conflict, in which more than 450,664 people were killed and more than 100,000 people have been reported missing, their fate still unknown.

In Bogota, Angela Cordon was only a teenager when her father and uncle disappeared in the southwestern department of Huila. Her uncle Reynaldo Cordon Herrera, a grocer, went missing on January 22, 2003, while travelling by truck. The next month her father, Guillermo Cordon Herrera, set out to find his brother and called home to say he had made contact with the rebel fighters he believed responsible; it was the last time his family heard from him. Neither man's body was ever found.

Angela credits the JEP with helping her learn about her father and uncle's time in captivity and the site of their execution, and the court has worked with former FARC members to try to locate their remains. She said fewer resources mean fewer missions to the field to find answers and less humanitarian personnel, and that her family may never be able to return to the site.

De la Espriella has framed the reduction as necessary to combat Colombia's rising public debt, which exceeds $370 billion. In a September statement he wrote that it is his duty to manage spending, demand results and allocate the government's limited resources to a justice system that serves everyone. He estimated the JEP's payroll budget alone was north of 404 billion pesos, or $127 million, in 2026.

Critics, however, have questioned whether austerity is the motive. At around 634 trillion pesos or $200 billion, the 2027 budget passed by presidential decree increases spending overall and is considered the largest spending package in the country's history. The president has also repeatedly criticised the JEP as slow and ineffective, and in an interview with the radio show Recap Blu he accused it of persecuting members of the military while washing the hands of guerrillas who committed crimes against humanity.

Ana Maria Rodriguez, a lawyer who represents victims of the conflict, described the accusation of bias as patently false, pointing out that the JEP has convicted some of the top leadership of the FARC. She said the court's work has not been perfect or complete, but Colombia's peace process has become a model studied by other countries and must be kept functional. She believes cuts will lead to fewer convictions and further impunity, because many perpetrators have never faced any justice mechanism outside the JEP.

In its effort to close unsolved cases, the court has offered leniency to soldiers, rebels and other fighters in exchange for cooperation with investigations, with sentences typically resulting in rehabilitation work and community service instead of prison. Rodriguez said such trade-offs are necessary to offer resolution to victims' families, that it is not clear how cases will proceed without witness cooperation programmes, and that shrinking the JEP's funding will be absolutely disastrous for victims.

Ahead of the anticipated cuts, more than 20 Colombian Congress members signed an open letter to the International Criminal Court asking for help, writing that they are concerned the budget's approval will jeopardise investigations, trials and the execution of sentences for crimes under the court's jurisdiction. Alberto Yepes, a spokesman for the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination Group, a human rights coalition, is also rallying against the cuts; he believes that by weakening the JEP, the president may seek to prevent the future prosecution of military leaders in cases involving state crimes.