President Ivan Duque is visiting New York, United States, to discuss the implementation of the Final Peace Agreement before the UN Security Council. At that meeting he referred to the Army operation in Puerto Leguizamo, Putumayo, which left 11 dead on March 28.
The event became controversial after the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, indicated that the deceased belonged to the FARC dissidents; while the communities of the municipality stated that it was the killing of 11 civilians under the modality of a 'false positive'. Over the years, social organizations and entities such as the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Procurator have paid special attention to how the operation took place, since it could be a crime against humanity.
The president, for his part, pointed out that the operation “had planning, had intelligence information, had precise information about the presence of leaders, members of terrorist cells and drug traffickers in that part of the territory”. So, according to Duque, there was an “exchange of fire” and some injured members of the security forces, but it was done “with all protocols”.
Faced with the investigation into the operation, the president said that the Attorney General's Office is carrying out the corresponding investigation to validate the military operation. Duque stated that the investigating body “knew in advance of the presence of terrorist cells and drug traffickers in that area” and for that reason, “the information that validates the operational work is information that the country is knowing.”
With regard to the deaths of civilians during the operation, the Head of State again clarified that the military's actions were carried out with the respective “protocols of use of force and in accordance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”. At the same time, he recalled that the Army is responding point by point to the questions and “requests have come from the Attorney General's Office and the Army is going to answer them,” he added.
The truth about the Army operation in Putumayo
El Espectador, Vorágine and the Revista Cambio made an alliance and moved to the village of Alto Remanso to learn how the events happened. The media collected evidence and testimony showing that the operation turned into a massacre against innocent civilians.
One of the most shocking deaths was that of the two-month-old pregnant woman, Ana María Sarrias. The victim bled to death, while a few meters away her husband, Divier Hernández, was murdered, who was shot in the head and was known to be the president of the village's Community Action Board. Although Pajaro, one of Ana María's neighbors, tried to help her, she could not save her life because of the rain of gunfire that lasted a long time.
Among the other victims, the death of an indigenous governor and a minor was reported. The latter was a 16-year-old boy named Brayan Santiago Pama and according to Vorágine, “there are signs of possible manipulation of the body by the Army.” The media outlet learned three photographs in which the young man's body changes place next to another corpse; in the last image he appears with a rifle that he did not have in the previous two.
Initially, 11 people died at the scene and according to the Government's version, there were four captures, but the media found that the procedures corresponding to this process were never carried out. Thus, to this day, no one was ever prosecuted for their alleged links with the dissidents of the extinct FARC, contrary to what President Iván Duque and Defense Minister Diego Molano confirmed at the time on their social networks.
On the other hand, in the stories of Cambio Magazine, more than 30 people say that the military did not wear their uniforms, but were dressed in black sweatshirts and t-shirts, in addition to this many of them were barbados and others wore hoods. The survivors said that they also came shouting: “We are the guerrillas”.
It should be recalled that the crossing of fire took place in the middle of a bazaar that was intended to “raise funds to build a road of 2.5 kilometers of plate-footprint to connect the trail with farms in the area”, as Vorágine explained. The media said that the people were mostly civilians, since there were only five FARC dissidents in the compound.
Attorney Antonio Varón Mejía, an expert in IHL and professor at the Universidad del Rosario, told Vorágine that due to the size of the event, the Army had to ponder the principle of humanity over the military, especially if they only went for two leaders. In contrast, General Juan Carlos Correa Consuegra, commander of the National Army's Air Assault Aviation Division, said they followed proper protocols and dwelt for civilians.
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