The body of regular soldier Juan David Daza Daza was found by the authorities in the morning, confirmed by the Army's Seventh Division. The uniformed man from the municipality of Clemencia, department of Bolívar, had recently begun to perform his military service.
The events occurred around midnight on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, in the Nutibara district, municipality of Frontino, department of Antioquia, where the Fourth Brigade units were attacked with explosives as they moved through the area.
According to the National Army, the first reports of this fact hold “bandits of the substructure Edwin Román Velásquez, of the Gulf Clan, responsible”, so far, together with Juan David Daza, the death of 6 other soldiers has been confirmed: Edwar Fernando Agudelo Castaño, Emir Esli Baldovino Zabaleta, Yonaiker Cordero Rivera, Juan Daniel Lozano Oviedo, Kevin Luis Altamiranda Cantero and Hector Fabio Buelvas Ospina. It is known that two uniformed men are still hospitalized, who are being treated at the Pablo Tobón hospital in Medellín and the military hospital in the capital of Antioquia.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation had a group of investigators, delegated by the leader of the judicial body, Francisco Barbosa, from the Delegate Unit for Territorial Security and another dedicated to Organized Crime, who will be supported by the Judicial Police of the Criminal Investigation Directorate and INTERPOL, DIJIN . Ballistics, electromagnetic spectrum recovery and inspection with drones and other technological elements are being carried out in the area.
The Government of Antioquia, following an Extraordinary Security Council announced that they are offering a reward of up to 250 million pesos, $150 million for information that would allow the capture of alias “Richard”, a member of the 'Edwin Román Velásquez' substructure of the so-called “Gulf Clan”, indicated in commit the attack. Also, $100 million was announced for those who provide data on the material and intellectual authors of these events.
Despite the fact that the Army announced that they are still carrying out operations and being present in the area, the prosecutor Francisco Barbosa pointed out that the specialized prosecutors, who arrived in the district, have had difficulty carrying out investigative work, due to some fighting in the area.
The commander of the Seventh Division of the Army, General Juvenal Díaz, explained that the attack was carried out with a modality that consists of installing the explosives, previously, along the roads where the security forces will be mobilized, so that when they pass by they are activated. He added that this mechanism has also been deployed by other armed groups. In fact, he assured that for this work, dissidents from the FARC who are recruited by the Gulf Clan would also be participating.
The relatives of soldier Daza are waiting for his remains in the municipality of Cocorná, Antioquia, where the mayor of the town, Saúl Giraldo, assured the Minuto 30 portal: “The whole country is dismayed by this situation, and even more so we who have lived through the cruelties of war for so many years and that now a young man, with so much life ahead of him has this happened, it's sad. At this moment it hurts us and it affects us (...) total rejection of this type of action”.
The Seventh Division command also expressed “the sincerest and heartfelt condolences to the families of these heroes of the homeland who were vilely murdered while fulfilling their mission of protecting civilians and their resources.”
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