Investigation of case of soldier who was shot by a colleague in the Chicamocha canyon (Santander)

The Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Attorney General's Office was in charge of the case in which a soldier murdered one of his colleagues after shooting him with his equipment weapon, after completing his surveillance work at the post that was installed on the road leading to the Chicamocha canyon in Santander.

According to the regional newspaper Vanguardia, the death of the soldier occurred on Good Friday and he was identified as Juan José Durán Acero who was part of the Artillery Battalion No. 5 Captain José Antonio Galán.

For the fact, in the Army they published a communiqué in which they indicated that the circumstances in which the events occurred are investigated by the CTI. The Alerta Santanderes radio station cited one of the parts of the letter confirming that the man in uniform was injured by a colleague.

“Apparently, at the end of the tasks carried out at the roadside checkpoint that troops were carrying out over the Chicamocha Canyon, another soldier in circumstances to be established would have activated his endowment weapon against the humanity of Durán Acero, who died on the spot,” they explained.

The station also indicated that the body of the dead soldier was transferred to the Legal Medicine headquarters in Bucaramanga for the respective forensic analysis.

In addition, the military announced that they will carry out the corresponding disciplinary and criminal proceedings to establish how the soldier's death occurred. They also sent their condolences to the family of the deceased soldier.

The incident occurred precisely when the case of another soldier who lost one of his feet when he fell into a minefield in the rural area of the municipality of Teorama (Norte de Santander).

The soldier was injured in operations carried out in the Guarapales village and the affected soldier was identified as José Páramo Casto.

Preliminary information obtained by the same medium indicated that, after the detonation of the mine, the soldier had his right foot amputated, so combat nurses had to treat him while he was evacuated, by air, to the city of Cucuta to receive medical attention.

Although at the moment the Army does not know which illegal armed group would be behind the installation of the explosive device, Blu Radio knew that, apparently, they could be members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) or the dissidents of the 33rd FARC front, who are operating in the area.

The presence of explosive devices in the municipality of Teorama is not new. On March 30, the commander of the Norte de Santander Police, Colonel Carlos Martínez, announced in dialogue with RCN Mundo that members of the ELN installed an explosive in the middle of the municipal park.

“Subversives of the ELN cartel, last week they attacked the police post, when our uniforms responded and when the bandits were lost, they withdrew the site and then left improvised bomb-bomb-type explosives abandoned in the middle of the town's main park,” said Colonel Martínez.

According to the uniformed, members of the Anti-Explosive Police were responsible for detonating the device in a controlled manner, which could have caused a tragedy for the civilian population that travels daily in the area to go to their jobs or take their children to school.

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