Mindefensa Diego Molano will attend a motion of censure for an operation that occurred in Putumayo

After a group of congressmen from the Green Alliance, the Decency List, the Commons Party and the Liberal Party, among others, filed a motion of censure in the House of Representatives over the result of the Putumayo military operation in which 11 people died in the El Remanso village, Defense Minister Diego Molano, informed the public that it was willing to accept the results of that procedure.

The senior official indicated that facing such political control is one of his duties as a public official, which is why: “As Minister of Defense, we will always attend those sessions of political control as we should in our role, with the certainty that we have in Colombia military forces and a police force that is its main purpose is to fight those enemies of the country to guarantee life and tranquility in any corner of the territory,” said the minister in the balance of military operations of April 13.

The official maintained the line of argument regarding the controversial operation carried out by the National Army, insisting that it was a legitimate action against an armed group outside the law and that, in addition, it generates violence against the population of southern Colombia.

The head of portfolio assured that the operation was planned five months ago before giving the green light to its development.

Molano explained that the intelligence of the Navy had information about the presence of illegal groups in the territory, which carried out activities related to drug trafficking. He also noted that the purpose of the operation was to give effect to an arrest warrant and in the process “all protocols of International Humanitarian Law were complied with”.

The minister's claims were supported by the commander of the Military Forces, General Luis Fernando Navarro, who claimed that the operation was trying to affect an illegal network that had been committing crimes in the region.

The chief of portfolio explained that the inhabitants of the region were being affected by the fighting between the 48th front and the Carolina Ramírez front of the FARC dissidents. For his part, General Oscar Alexander Tovar, Chief Legal Officer of the Army, indicated that 454 victims of anti-personnel mines had been recorded in the area of the operation over a period of two years.

The operation in Puerto Leguizamo removed the wounds of “false positives”, as is known the biggest scandal involving the military forces in Colombia in which at least 6,400 civilians were killed and presented as guerrilla fighters killed between 2002 and 2008.

“What the army did was a massacre,” said Argemiro Hernández, father of one of the victims. According to his version, his son was a peasant and community leader who was at a party. Without a unified command, the dissident groups number about 2,500 fighters, according to the independent study center Indepaz, one of the social organizations that has openly criticized Molano for the fatal results of that operation.

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