“We will request that the Minister of Defense be censured and that he abandons his post”, Iván Cepeda

A group of congressmen from the Green Alliance, the Decency List, the Commons Party and the Liberal Party filed on April 12 a proposal before the House of Representatives citing Defense Minister Diego Molano to debate a motion of censure over the result of the military operation carried out on March 28 by the Army National in the Alto Remanso village, in the municipality of Puerto Leguizamo (Putumayo).

The issue created a big roar in Colombian society and politics, so the Senator of the Democratic Pole, Iván Cepeda, held a dialogue with Caracol Radio in which he assured that what is expected with the summons made to Minister Molano is that he resign from office.

“There will be a request for explanations and we will request that the Minister of Defense be censured and that he abandon his post, this case is extremely serious,” said the progressive senator.

In order to justify the request and make the motion demonstrate non-compliance with International Humanitarian Law -IDH-, the politician commented that his Peace Commission will travel to Puerto Leguizamo in Putumayo to collect testimonies about what happened in a military operation. Despite the fact that the Army and the authorities have justified the operation and indicated that all protocols were respected, the testimonies of the locals indicate the opposite.

“There were between 30 and 50 people who are civilians, as the UN said, but there was manipulation of the crime scene, or as the victims have been presented. There is a series of evidence and testimonies, there is an indigenous governor, indigenous peoples have been adverse to the use of violence, the death of their leaders, governors, is this explanation that the governor is part of a dissent, in addition to the renowned president of the community action, his pregnant wife, a minor of age”, explained Cepeda.

For his part, a 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 military forces and a police force in Colombia that are main purpose is to combat those enemies of the country to ensure life and tranquility in any corner of the territory”.

He argued that the operation was planned five months ago before giving the green light, and that the intelligence of the Navy had information about the presence of illegal groups in the territory, which were carrying 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 statements have been 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.

KEEP READING