The UN and the OAS ask the Colombian Government for an independent investigation of the recent peasant massacre

The death of 11 people, including a minor and a pregnant woman, in the framework of a counterinsurgency operation of the Colombian Army in a rural town has become a new international problem for President Iván Duque. While the president was expounding at the United Nations on the implementation of the peace agreement with the FARC, which he has had to carry out with evident reluctance, the UN Human Rights Office for Colombia, from New York, the Government also demanded an investigation “exhaustive and independent“about what happened almost 20 days ago in Alto Remanso, 550 kilometers south of Bogotá, where an authority from the original Kichwa community also died. What Duque presented in the United States as an” operation that had planning and intelligence information ” who sought to capture members of the so-called FARC dissidence, has been described as killing of civilians by human rights organizations. The left-wing presidential candidate in the May 29 elections, Gustavo Petro, favorite in the polls, spoke of a war crime. It is in this context that the UN asked Bogotá to guarantee “the rights of victims to truth, justice and reparation“. He also recalled that according to International Law the use of lethal weapons “can only be done when it is strictly unavoidable and with the purpose of protecting life.” For this reason, he recommended that the Colombian authorities take “disciplinary and penal measures to prosecute and punish those responsible for what happened in Alto Remanso”.

A second wake-up call was heard by Duque in the United States. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), dependent on the Organization of American States (OAS), also called for an independent investigation into the events in Alto Remanso and for the Government to take measures to preserve the life of rural communities in conflict zones.

As an effect of international pressure, the Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, asked the Attorney General’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office to speed up the investigations. “It is essential to determine if, in addition to the victims already identified, there are others. This is because some people in the community say that there were those who fell into the river or tried to flee from the risk by jumping into it.”

The response to Duke.

He went to the UN and was slapped in the face for absolute incoherence. https://t.co/2J37CtZ3jY

– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 13, 2022

The Defense Minister Diego Molano, who is in the eye of the storm, once again vindicated the actions of the Army. He reiterated in this sense that the military action targeted armed groups that operate on the border with Ecuador and that have ties to drug trafficking.

The official version of events is, however, severely disputed. Camilo González Posso, the president of the Institute of Studies for the Development of Peace (INDPAZ) harshly criticized Duque and his minister for the explanations they have offered about the recent tragedy. Duque, he remarked, “was not able to respond to the question raised by the United Nations mission itself when it raised the need to clarify situations such as the massacre in Putumayo, and other similar situations that compromise agents of the public force in serious human rights violations in Colombia. INDEPAZ has counted 217 massacres perpetrated in that country during the last two years, with a balance of 830 fatalities.

“The government, starting with the president, gave wrong information about the initial results of the operation,” said the digital magazine the empty chair. “The operation was risky because it was carried out in the middle of a community party.”

For Mario Morales, columnist for the Bogotá newspaper The viewer“as much as the evidence of the flagrant violation of human rights in (the region of) Putumayo, it hurts the insulting stubbornness of the Government and military authorities by trying to cover the sun with a finger.” According to Morales, insisting that it was an intelligence job “not only leaves the entire military body, already questioned in these conflicts, in a bad light, but also it insults the exemplary journalistic work of the media that once again demonstrates its efficiency as a counterpower every time they break ranks”. Incidentally, he added, “it insults the citizens who expect, at the very least, explanations, clarifications, apologies and the transparent judgment of responsibilities, as would correspond to those who claim to defend institutionality”. The columnist considered “insensitive” the argument offered by the head of the Army, General Eduardo Zapateiro, when pointing out that it is not the first time that pregnant women or minors have been killed in a military action.