New case of alleged sexual abuse at the José María Córdova Military Cadet School

On March 26, a letter signed by the mother of a cadet from the José María Córdova Military Cadet School arrived at the offices of the Ministry of Defense, stating that her daughter was the victim of sexual harassment and violence by a cadet belonging to the military school.

The document addressed to the General of the National Army, Eduardo Enrique Zapateiro Altamiranda, relates that the acts of violence against women have occurred inside the military facilities during a duty shift. The mother of the alleged victim identifies herself as Yelki Serley Céspedes Aranda and in the letter states that: “My daughter notified Captain Sebastian Diaz Rincón of the facts.”

The acts committed allegedly attacked the cadet physically, emotionally, psychologically and sexually.

In addition to asking for justice, the complainant demands explanations from Captain Díaz Rincón of the reasons why “as you are a public official, once the facts were known, the protocols for the care of victims of sexual violence were not activated immediately, which could have minimized stigmatization and accusations by the same staff of students of the José María Córdova Military Cadet School: students who, with the aim of protecting their continuity in school, made up the situation in order to generate isolation and revictimization for my daughter,” says the woman bluntly.

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In the document, which was also copied to the Ministry of Defense and the Attorney General's Office, the mother assured that the situation of revictimization that her daughter suffered, “led her to pretend to take her own life.” To the media outlet Contagio Radio, Céspedes Aranda, said that his request is based on the cadet being attached to the respective process as a victim of sexual violence, “I ask that it be fulfilled to me and my daughter”.

Other officers of the National Army, mentioned in the complaint, are: Brigadier General Giovani Valencia Hurtado, director of the José María Córdova Military Cadet School; Captain Sebastián Diaz Rincón, Commander Junín Commander José María Córdova Military Cadet School and Yuly Cepeda, Executive Director of Veterans for Colombia and Gender Studies.

According to figures released by the National Army during 2021 in the country, 16,940 complaints of some type of sexual violence against women were filed. In 118 such cases, members of the National Army would be involved, as General Zapateiro said in an interview with El Tiempo that “no soldier is trained in the institution to violate the human rights of children and adolescents. It is a fundamental problem because there are soldiers who are institutionally trained for this type of event.”

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The last known case of sexual violence inside a military installation came out on March 8, when a colonel was relieved of his post for having abused an officer in a military canton of Yopal.

On that occasion, the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, said that “the protocols already in place in the Army to prevent sexual harassment were not complied with. We regret the fact that these protocols had not been complied with, of course,” said the minister at the time, the same regret that almost a month later, the mother of the cadet allegedly abused in the José María Córdova Cadet School.

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