On August 29, 2019, the Colombian government bombed San Vicente del Caguán (a southern Colombian town), where a camp of FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) dissidents was located. FARC dissidents are ex-members of the guerrilla group, FARC, who defected from the peace agreement and went back to arms. The government presented the military action as a great achievement, as it succeeded in killing its target—Gildardo Cucho, a FARC dissident leader (cabecilla) who wanted to join Ivan Márquez (for more information, read The Wall Street Journal: No Peace in Our Time in Colombia). At first glance, the operation does seem like a success. However, further investigation reveals that minors were in the FARC camp.
Medicina Legal (Colombia’s national medical agency) declared that at least eight minors died during the military operation. More surprising is how the government had been warned about the minors, since in January the Minister of Interior Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez had received a report where she was informed of the increasing illicit minor recruitment and presence of illegal groups in the zone. Even with this information, the Colombian government decided to bomb the camp.
Unfortunately, the deaths of minors became public on November 5, 2019, when the news reached the media after Senator Roy Barreras accused the then Defense Minister Guillermo Botero of hiding the deaths of the minors. Botero replied that he had no knowledge whatsoever of the presence of minors and said that all operations had been appropriately executed.
Nonetheless, as mentioned before, the government had knowledge about the minors and still carried out the operation. Due to the polemic situation, Botero resigned as defense minister.
The Colombian government is unstable as it is, and hiding the death of minors is not helping. Duque’s administration must find a way to unite the polarized country and face the undeniable threat posed by the FARC dissidents. The people of Colombia are demanding actions and truth, and therefore it is no surprise that the country is uniting in a national strike this week, on November 21; whether it will be successful or not is still to be seen.
Juan Camilo González (COL ’23), who is from Colombia, is a Contributor.
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