Bombs against children of the FARC in Colombia

• Presidency: A year of Iván Duque: the struggle to bring down Maduro
• Colombia: Massacre of indigenous people by the FARC to control drug trafficking

Another blow straight to the chin of the defense minister who can barely stand. The revelation of the death of seven minors in a bombing of the Air Force to a camp of the FARC dissidents, further complicates their stay in the cabinet. Even Álvaro Uribe, one of his main supporters, got rid of Guillermo Botero. He asked for more explanations about the military operation, carried out on September 29, in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, department of Caquetá, to eliminate alias 'Gildardo El Cucho'. In their day they only reported the casualties of that guerrilla leader and "14 bandits", members of his Corps Guard.

Botero gave them, not only in the Senate on Tuesday night (Spanish dawn), where they debated the motion of censure that aims to get him out of the government. Also this Wednesday, at 8 in the morning, (14 hours on the Peninsula), next to the commander of the Military Forces, General Luis Fernando Navarro.

"It was not an operation against minors but against a residual Gao 7 structure , " the minister said Wednesday, in an appearance before the press, where he only read a statement. It should be noted that the previous Government called GAO (Armed Residual Armed Group) to the FARC dissidents, although they continue to use the same acronym and are considered children of said terrorist gang. In the case of Marras, they refer to the Seventh Front of the FARC.

The news at the time, which President Iván Duque communicated in a public act as a great achievement in the fight against the new drug gangs, had no greater echo. Until yesterday night Tuesday.

Senator Roy Barreras, of the U Party (which was a uribista and later a saint), in his speech in the debate on the motion of censure, revealed the result of the autopsies on the corpses of the seven guerrillas: three girls, the youngest 12 years old, and four teenage boys. For Barreras, the minister hid the ages from Colombia and the President himself.

The revelation further complicated the minister's weak position. The motion of censure, proposed by the aforementioned senator before the wave of murders of indigenous people in the department of Cauca, seemed to revolve around what happened with the natives, given strong criticism of Iván Duque for his inability to prevent them.

But Barreras' discourse turned the political interest towards the casualties of minors and although the voting on the motion will not take place until next week, the Executive's room for maneuver seems narrower to avoid its fall.

Minister's explanation

In any case, the minister insisted that they were unaware of the presence of minors and that all planning and execution of the bombing was done in accordance with IHL (International Humanitarian Law). He also claimed that they could not report on the ages since the Legal Medicine reports only sent them to the Prosecutor's Office, responsible for the investigations of any war event.

General Navarro, for his part, explained that 'Gildardo Cucho' had entered the FARC in 1994, demobilized with the peace process and in 2016 he joined the first dissidents, commanded by 'Gentil Duarte'. He stayed for a while in Venezuela and returned to Caquetá to reorganize the FARC in that and other neighboring departments. It represented, he insisted, a great danger, what the "legitimate operation, legal and within the framework of IHL does. It is the duty of the Military Forces to continue protecting the life and honor of Colombians." The officer added that "the one who inflicts IHL is the one who places the minors (in a camp). They commit a war crime."

The controversy, however, has only just begun. The Personero (a sort of Ombudsman) of Puerto Rico (Caquetá), Elmer Carrero, told RCN radio, that he had denounced the recruitment of minors by the dissidents and nobody paid any attention to him. His statement suggested that military intelligence should know about the existence of these children.

Enrolling children and adolescents has been a regular practice of the FARC. In April 2015, in the middle of the peace process with the guerrillas, the military arrested seven boys aged 16 and 17 in a fight. One of them was injured. By then, the FARC delegates in Cuba had promised not to recruit anymore. Nor at that time the Army reported the ages. He limited himself to giving them to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute and the matter did not happen to adults.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• FARC
• Venezuela
• Colombia
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