“Innocent civilians were seized war arsenal”: Minister Molano denies allegations about the operation in Putumayo

The Colombian Defense Minister, Diego Molano, reported on Monday, March 28, that in the middle of an operation carried out by the public forces in the municipality of Puerto Leguizamo, department of Putumayo, nine alleged members of FARC dissidents were killed and that four others had been captured.

However, social organizations such as the Putumayo Human Rights Network and the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (Opiac) rejected the official version and denounced the alleged murder of peasants and indigenous authorities in the middle of the operation, including the chairman of the board of community action Divier Hernández Rojas, and indigenous governor Pablo Panduro Coquinche.

Faced with the conflicting versions of the national government and social organizations, voices such as that of the Colombian President, Iván Duque, that of the opposition leader and presidential candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, and that of the researcher from the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, Juan Pappier, who assured that international organization is investigating the case and noted that “it is urgent to clarify the facts”.

Despite repeated calls from different social and political sectors to clarify what happened in Puerto Leguizamo, the head of the Defence portfolio, Diego Molano, came out to support the national army and noted that the institution had reported that the operation had not been against peasants or indigenous people, while not had done in a bazaar, as reported by Opiac, denying the versions of social organizations.

“The Army reports that the operation was not against peasants, but farc dissidents. It was not against innocent indigenous people, but narcococaleros. It wasn't in a bazaar, but against criminals who attacked soldiers. We defend Colombians,” Minister Molano said through his Twitter account in response to a message from left-wing senator Gustavo Petro, who said the operation had been against unarmed civilians “including children.”

“It's not neutralization Mr. President Duque, it's murder. There were not 11 members of the FARC, they were peasants and indigenous civilians unarmed, including children. It is a war crime of his government In my government there is no end to false positives,” said the presidential candidate of the leftist alliance, who was contrasted by Minister Molano.

In addition, in the message shared by the head of the Defence portfolio through the social network, he attached a video showing men with long-range weapons, who were supposed to be the dissidents killed and captured by the security forces, while sharing images of the war arsenal that had allegedly been them seized in the middle of operations.

“The 'innocent civilians' were seized: war arsenal; grenades, rifles, suppliers, cartridges, among others. A call to candidates: it's not all about politics. Military operations comply with all the required protocols,” said Minister Molano, who shared a video of an Army soldier who was injured during the operation and is in the Military Hospital, in which he tells how in the middle of the alleged confrontation a man in civilian clothes shot him with a rifle.

Minister Molano's positions in the face of police operations that have been questioned by different sectors have always been supportive, despite evidence of the death of minors in army bombings against FARC dissident camps or the killing of civilians in the midst of demonstrations of the national strike, which have generated indignation among the civilian population.

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