Ten military men who are charged how they threatened villagers with their weapons in a rural area of the north Colombia -an incident that was described as “very serious” by the government-, were suspended, the General Staff of the Army of the country announced yesterday Thursday (14/9).
“Upon learning of the facts, the army command immediately took the necessary measures,” first of all ordering an investigation.said in a press release issued by the head of the army, General Luis Mauricio Ospina.
“I made the decision to take away their trust and responsibility to carry weapons»he added, referring to the members of the military allegedly involved.
NCOs and officers who have threatened civilians will not be allowed to participate in “any” intelligence-gathering operation or mission, according to the same source.
Videos and photos released earlier this week on social networking sites before being reproduced by the media show masked soldiers, without any unit insignia, to threaten with weapons villagers, among them women and terrified children, in the rural community of Tieralta, in the province of Córdoba, an area where drug trafficking and armed groups are known to operate.
The fear of a return to paramilitary activity
The government described the episode as “extremely serious”, with the social democratic president Gustavos Petros condemning it unequivocally and referring to a possible “return” of the phenomenon of paramilitary action. He was referring to the far-right battalions, which in synergy with parts of the army were terrorizing the population in the context of the war against left-wing rebel organizations in the early 2000s.
According to a local official, the soldiers posed as members of a dissident group of the former FARC, which rejects the 2016 peace deal.
Yesterday Thursday, President Petros, the first leftist in the country’s history, again strongly condemned the incident: “No soldier should ever be allowed to shoot a little boy again or kill villagers again (…) Colombia will not return to the past, to the barbarism of the past”he insisted.
“What were those who gave the orders seeking?” he asked, implying that some are trying to bring his government into disrepute by sowing “turmoil and chaos”. With such actions, the Colombian army is not walking the path of “glory or honor”, but “of indecency”, he overstated and invoked the father of the nation, Simón Bolívar: “Cursed is the soldier who points a weapon against the people”.
In the province of Córdoba, where coca crops are known to be located, various armed groups operate: dissidents from the FARC, the ELN, drug traffickers, above all far-right former paramilitaries of the Clan del Golfo.
The day before Wednesday, a military helicopter that was transporting to Tieralta members of the committee set up to investigate the incident came under fire from the ground. It was a Klan attack, the army estimated yesterday.
During Colombia’s endless civil war, which has lasted more than half a century, countless massacres of civilians and other crimes have been committed. Much is attributed to the military, especially in the context of the scandal known as falsos positivos (“false positives”, n. results). For years, military personnel executed civilians and then presented them as insurgents killed in battle to secure promotions, licenses and other privileges.
Source: News Beast
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