Rural community of Mapiripan (Meta) denounces that the Army dynamited their homes in an operation

A new and serious denunciation of what would be an unjustified attack by the Army made in the television news news report Noticias Uno by the community of Unibrisas del Iteviare, in the rural area of Mapiripán (Meta), after the military will carry out work to recover a forest reserve area in which they reportedly used, dynamite to destroy the houses they had built in that area.

In that news, they reported that the aforementioned incursion was carried out within the operation Atermisa, with which the Public Force seeks to recover forest areas that have been affected by illegal activities such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, among others.

However, the community denounces that there were excesses on the part of the uniformed men who destroyed the hamlet using explosives.

“Officials of the Army and the Judicial Police, although they were doing their procedure, decided to exploit or place dynamite in their homes and on bridges that serve the community, so that children can go to a school,” said Camilo Lombana, the proxy of those affected.

Noticias Uno indicated that these were precarious homes that had been erected by families of displaced persons and that on the day of the operation they were destroyed with detonations causing damage to the environment, paradoxically in an operation to protect a forest reserve area.

“They took me there near the house, about 200 meters to be exploited. They ended up with the animals, the chickens, cats that were there. I went there and that was blood, I think from animals,” said a witness to the fact.

In the news report they also stated that in one of the houses they were going to destroy, the explosive was not detonated and was found by a minor. They fear that a tragedy may occur because the charge is still there.

Environmentalist Camilo Prieto, who was consulted in that media outlet, said that legislation for the recovery of reserve areas indicates that such elements should not be used.

“Destruction protocols focus on eliminating, for example, machinery used in illegal mining or destruction of crops for illicit use, but they are never designed to destroy homes of peasants and vulnerable populations. This is undoubtedly a flagrant violation of Human Rights because it is the powers of the State thrown upon highly vulnerable populations,” he explained.

Those affected produced a communiqué denouncing the alleged excess of military force and assured that they have no connection with illegal activities. They added that they fear for their lives and that operations such as the one in Puerto Leguizamo (Putumayo) occur, in which 11 people who the community indicates were civilians died, but who in the Army they claim were members of one of the dissidents of the extinct FARC guerrilla.

On the subject, in that military force they responded to Noticias Uno that the illegal armed group Arcesio Niño was committed in the place, and that there was indiscriminate logging in that area that is a forest reserve. They reiterated that those involved in environmental crimes were captured and that they also seized a ton of urea and other chemical inputs used in illicit crops. They also found scythes, chainsaws and a power plant.

They added that soldiers were sent to the site who will be responsible for checking the place where one of the explosive charges was reported to be continuing.

This fact is known precisely when Human Rights Watch denounced that in the Alto Remanso village, in Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo), members of the security forces have dedicated themselves to threatening and intimidating peasants and indigenous people.

These alleged intimidations come 23 days after the release of the operation in which several civilians, including a minor, an indigenous authority and a pregnant woman, were allegedly killed by soldiers looking for alias Bruno, a member of the FARC dissidents.

According to Human Right Watch, a report will be presented in the coming days that will feature testimonies from the people of the territory and from official sources.

The human rights organization also criticized the report submitted by the Office of the Ombudsman, since it assures that the document does not present clear conclusions about the events in that community.

It should be recalled that on the conduct of the operation carried out on 28 March, the Office of the Ombudsman warned of the obligation to respect the rules of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) with regard to the principles of precaution, distinction and proportionality.

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