May 21, 2023, 5:23 PM
May 21, 2023, 5:23 PM
Four minors from the Murui indigenous people were killed in the Colombian Amazon by FARC dissidents that they are in a bilateral truce with the government, denounced the Ombudsman this Sunday.
The minors had been forcibly recruited by the rebels who withdrew of the peace pact that disarmed the once most powerful guerrilla in America in 2017, according to the initial report of the indigenous communities of the area.
The entity that watches over human rights confirmed the complaint and detailed in a statement that the “four children and adolescents, members of the Murui indigenous community” were executed on the border between the departments of Caquetá and Amazonas (south). “after having deserted” from the Carolina Ramírez front, one of the dissident factions of the FARC that adhered to a bilateral ceasefire proposed by the government on January 1.
Grouped under the name Estado Mayor Central de la FARC (EMC), these fronts that did not adhere to the 2017 peace pact and Some 3,000 combatants are about to start a new peace process with the government of the leftist Gustavo Petro, despite several violations of the truce.
Neither the authorities nor the natives have specified the ages of the deceased. So far only the name of one of them is known: Luis Alberto Matías Caperarecruited at the end of March in a town in the neighboring department of Putumayo and shot to death on May 17 along with the other three minors.
“Recruiting and killing children and adolescents from indigenous communities are not exactly gestures of goodwill to achieve peace. In addition to being evident violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL),” the Ombudsman claimed.
In turn, Petro cdescribed the multiple murder as “a heinous crime, a slap to peace” and anticipated “measures against these facts.”
Consulted by various journalists via WhatsApp, EMC spokespersons expressed that “no statements will be made in this regard until the information is fully collated” with their fronts in the area.
Colombia is experiencing an armed conflict that persists after the peace agreement and confronts rebels, drug traffickers and state agents in a prolonged war that leaves more than 9 million victims.
Petro, the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia, dialogue with guerrillas, armed groups of paramilitary origin and drug gangs to end violence in the world’s largest cocaine producer.
