Colombia: Four civilians among 11 killed by guerrillas

Four civilians, including an indigenous governor, a local official and a teenager, are at 11 dead that the Colombian army presented as guerrillas killed by its forces in a recent operation on the border with Peru, human rights organizations denounced yesterday Wednesday.

“The people who were killed by him military “They were not guerrillas, but civilians, including our indigenous comrades,” said Oscar Dasha, a spokesman for the organization that represents the indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), during a news conference.

According to the NGO, The 11 victims, a senior official who claimed to be insurgents of the former FARC rebels rejecting the 2016 peace deal, included indigenous governor Pablo Panduro, Commonwealth Mayor Divier Hernandez and his wife.

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed that “an indigenous governor, mayor and his wife were killed during the army operation”. “There is an urgent need to clarify the facts,” said Juan Papier, the NGO’s lead researcher on the American continent.

The ombudsman’s office, which received a complaint from OPIAC, stressed that “a 16-year-old teenager” was among the victims and also called on the authorities to “clarify as soon as possible” what exactly happened, as reported by Agence France-Presse and Athens News Agency.

The day before yesterday, General Alberto Rodriguez said that the 11 people killed in Puerto Legisamo, in the Putumayo district (south), belonged to Segunda Marquetalia (“Second Marketalia”), the name refers to a historic battle that FARC), one of the two largest factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

“The operation was not against villagers, but against FARC insurgents. “It was not against innocent natives, but against drug traffickers,” the Minister of Defense insisted yesterday, Wednesday, via Twitter. ColombiaDiego Molano.

Without making any reference to the fighting, the prosecutor’s office announced via Twitter that it was investigating “the events in Puerto Legisamo during which 11 people were killed.”

Source: News Beast

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