Nicasio Martínez Espinel, commander of the Colombian army has been in the center of an investigation of the last few days New York Times according to which orders would be given by the main Colombian military commanders imposing the capture and killing of Colombian criminals. This investigation has raised many concerns as it would detect a possible return to military policies that in the past would have led to a wave of murders sowing discord over a peace agreement with the FARC.
Espinel, acknowledged having given the order and allegedly justified the same by arguing the need for a new strategy due to the escalation of crime in the country.
The response given by the government to the investigation was a counter-order with which President Iván Duque ordered a regime of intolerance towards those soldiers who commit that kind of abuse.
Already in recent months, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that at least nine generals were under investigation for human rights violations and extrajudicial killings, which occurred by units under their command from 2002 to 2008. Soldiers allegedly killed 5.000 young men Colombians - many of them poor or mentally handicapped - and disguising the corpses as guerrillas. Óscar Gómez, former commander of the 43rd infantry battalion in Vichada, for example, was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison on May 37 for his alliance with former paramilitary chief Pedro Guerrero Castillo, said Knife, and for the murder of two civilians who were later peddled as guerrillas.
The recent murder of a fighter from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) by a soldier active in the Santander department also confirmed that the government is slowly reverting to its old ways. The murder was initially reported as an "accident". It was later discovered that the soldiers involved tried to cover up a crime.
Photo: US Army
