Antonio García, top commander of the illegal armed group known as the National Liberation Army (ELN), assured that that guerrilla does not recruit children and adolescents and that everyone who enters does so voluntarily because no one is forced to be part of that criminal organization.
In context: More than 500 children have been recruited since the signing of the Peace Agreement
The statement by the head of this group came after the report of the Risk Monitoring Mechanism of the Comprehensive System for Peace became known, which revealed that Since the signing of the agreement with the FARC in 2016 and until August 21, 542 children and adolescents have been forcibly recruited in Colombia.
The report showed that the main recruiters of minors are the FARC dissidents, the ELN with 22% and the Clan del Golfo.
Antonio García published through his official account on the Twitter social network a series of messages in which he assured that the illegal armed group does not recruit anyone and in which he said that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is allegedly lying.
“The ELN does not recruit combatants for its guerrilla structures. All admission to our ranks is voluntary, at the request of the interested party; no one is ever forced to join,” said.
He also mentioned that “every entry into the ELN is made for political reasons where there is identity for the cause of the poor, the humble and the neediest in society”.
He denied that children are forced to join the ranks of that guerrilla and that they only enter from the age of 16, when they are still minors in accordance with the Political Constitution of Colombia.
“International Humanitarian Law establishes that minors under 15 years of age cannot join a combat force; in the ELN it is done with people over 16 years old,” he said.
In the controversial trill he also said that “those who recruit minors are the Colombian Military Forces and Police, They do it from the age of 8 or 9, they prepare them to carry out intelligence missions by infiltrating them in the guerrilla fronts”.
The top leader of the ELN accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of ‘misrepresent the truth’ about what happens to young people who are presented as kidnapped.
“There have been many cases of young people who have been captured as infiltrators and they have been released through the ICRC, with documented evidence of their intelligence missions; but the ICRC has presented them as kidnapped by the ELN, completely distorting the truth”.
For now, the international body for the defense of human rights has not ruled on the statements of Antonio García.
