On March 28, 2022, the National Army revealed that a military operation carried out in the Alto Remanso village, in the municipality of Puerto Lequizamo in Putumayo, resulted in the casualties of 11 people who, according to the authorities, were members of the FARC dissidents. As the weeks passed, investigations and testimonies revealed that they could be extrajudicial executions. The dead were civilians.
Among the 11 deceased persons are several civilians such as a minor, a pregnant woman, an indigenous governor and the president of the Community Action Board. The testimonies that have been revealed over the last few days, showed that a massacre carried out by the National Army had been committed at the scene of the confrontation and that there would be a possible manipulation at the scene of the events and the bodies of the people.
This situation targeted the officers and caused enormous controversy among people on social networks. The presidential candidates also spoke after what happened and the results of the investigations. The candidate of the Oxygen Green party, Ingrid Betancourt condemned the facts and affirmed that the military who were involved in the events must respond, but not the entire National Army should be questioned as an institution.
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“What happened in Putumayo is unheard of and unfortunately all too common in Colombia,” presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt said in statements published in Semana. He also pointed out that, “this is very serious, because assuming they wanted to find criminals, they had every possibility in front of an unarmed population to verify the identities of each of those present there. They had no excuse, there is no justification for that hunt, killing people from afar and in hiding.”
The presidential candidate highlighted the importance of civil intelligence and stressed that, “These events cannot continue to be the bread of every day in Colombia. We are talking about the fact that we do need public forces, that public force must be coordinating with military intelligence, but also with population intelligence, civil intelligence.”
“For there to be the force of law, the Prosecutor's Office has to be present, we cannot continue to have a Prosecutor's Office that travels in military helicopters precisely to investigate the events committed by army personnel,” said Ingrid Betancourt, who assured that the events could be isolated situations and would not be a responsibility of the entire security forces.
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“We have the Army of the region. The best army is the Colombian. We know that we have soldiers committed to the defense and security of Colombians (...) To give back to our institution the moral example and authority so that our population feels protected by our public forces,” said Ingrid Betancourt.
On her social networks, the candidate of the Green Oxygen party also referred to this situation and condemned what happened. “A false positive is the most egregious human rights violation in recent history. There can be no impunity. The government has to do what it takes to clarify. The State has to protect us in order to regain trust and allow reconciliation.”
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