This article aimed to conduct a legal review of the impact of judicial truth, known through the testimonies obtained in the framework of the Colombian Justice and Peace Law (Law 975 of 2005), as an essential instrument for the construction of historical memory regarding paramilitary groups and armed conflict in Colombia. For the development of this text, the testimonies of former paramilitaries from the Catatumbo Bloc, collected during judicial processes carried out between 2005 and 2014, were taken as the object of study. This article, by focusing on these testimonies, reviewed those fundamental elements of the Colombian armed conflict that, through judicial truth, laid the foundations for building the nation's collective memory, such as the identification of the perpetrators of thousands of crimes, their motives, and even the structures of these paramilitary groups. Additionally, the research conducted for this article used a qualitative approach, employing judicial documents such as sentences, interviews, and archival materials from institutions such as the Fiscalía General de la Nación (FNG) and the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH), as well as independent journals and non-governmental organization portals that documented the paramilitary demobilization process in the period 2002 - 2015. The findings highlighted the relevance of judicial truth in understanding the conflict, while also demonstrating that, despite limitations, it has provided a mechanism to address the rights of victims to know the truth, receive reparations, and access guarantees of non-repetition. Finally, the research emphasized the importance of judicial truth as a step towards reconciliation and the prevention of future violence.
