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The questionable management of the minister of Defense raised the political tension in Colombia Colombia returns to the incentives that led to extrajudicial executions
The death of seven minors in a bombing raid against the objections of the FARC, which is in addition to the ghost of the return of the extrajudicial executions in the midst of growing questions as to its management, and held against the strings with the minister of Defense of Colombia, Guillermo Botero. Both the opposition parties as those that are declared in independence from the Government of Ivan Duke questioned the focus on this Tuesday in the Senate to the official, during the discussion of the second motion of censure against it.
Supported by the forensic reports, the senator Roy Barreras, promoter of the initiative of the parliament, accused Him of reviving the so-called “false positives” –the killing of civilians presented as combat casualty– and hide the death of the seven children –between the ages of 12 and 17 years– in a military operation in a rural area of Caquetá department. According to the authorities, that raid claimed the lives of 14 members of the disagreements at the end of August. “Hide those deaths to Colombia is reason enough for this Senate censor, as I am sure he will for the first time,” said the congressman of the Party of the U. The motion, which could force the questioned minister to leave office, will be voted on next Wednesday 13 November.
At the time, the president Duke announced as an “operation flawless”, sample of “heroism” and “coordination”, that allowed to shoot down ‘Gildardo Cucho’, a leader of the disagreement. In his defense, in the Congress, Botero declared himself “surprised” by the many “inaccuracies”. He said that the bombing was done following the protocols of international law, was not known, the presence of minors and hinted that combatants recruited by the dissidents of the extinct FARC –today disarmed and converted into a political party for the account of the peace agreement sealed by the end of 2016–. Without referring to the alleged concealment of the information, said to be the competent authorities to determine if they were the dissidents who violated the laws of war by having minors in their ranks. In a brief statement on the morning of this Wednesday, which seems to anticipate the possible court case, the minister has reaffirmed that “all military operations are preceded by a planning phase”, accompanied by a legal adviser.
The squall legislative against Botero, who represents the sector of the Executive more closely linked to the former president and senator Alvaro Uribe, occurs in the middle of a serious crisis of security by the wave of murders of indigenous people in the Cauca department. There have killed at least 12 people in separate attacks in a week, especially indigenous people at Nasa.
The debate also arrested in the case of a young Flower Horn, an activist who according to the Army, he died in a bout last October 28, in the Cauca region, while the locals claim that he was killed by the military. Supported on data of the autopsy, the senator Barreras said that what they shot in the back: “the murder of the Flower Trumpet was another extrajudicial execution, sold as died in combat”. On this front, the questions accumulate about Botero from his erratic statements around the murder of a former guerrilla Dimar Torres, on the 22nd of April. Semana magazine recently showed that it was a murder planned by soldiers.
In his extensive exposure to the management of Botero, the senator recalled the mistakes made in the dossier about Venezuela that Duke –with intelligence information– presented to the United Nations, as well as the increased perception of insecurity in all the cities and the failure to prevent the murders of social leaders, indigenous and ex-combatants. “The minister has lost control of the department of Cauca”, in accordance with the senator Antonio Sanguino, while Angelica Lozano, his copartidaria of the Alliance Green, was even more vehement: “Let it feel, president Duke. Is being evil to you to have an incompetent in the Ministry of Defence”.
As had already happened in June during the first motion of censure in the House of Representatives that was favorable, Botero arrived accompanied by the top military commanders. The Government party, the Democratic Center, tried to interpret the initiative as a discussion about the legitimacy of the Armed Forces. The main even was presented with posters with the slogan #MinDefensaCumple. But unlike then, the Congress does not have closed ranks around the officer. On the contrary, both the Liberal Party as a Radical Change, not part of neither the coalition Government nor of the opposition, anticipated that proposed to censure the minister in the vote next Wednesday.
