Human rights defenders and other politicians denounced the death of several minors in an Army bombing that took place on March 2 in the Calamar municipality, in the department of Guaviare, against the guerrilla group alias Gentil Duarte.

Legal Medicine, in a preliminary report delivered to some media, stated that among the victims was the body of a minor under 16 years of age, While the rest of the deceased correspond to people from 19 to 39 years old, according to Semana magazine.

In addition, the Institute of Legal Medicine continues with the verifications of the bodies, especially two that correspond to citizens of Venezuelan nationality who so far have not been able to be identified.

This is a preliminary report that remains under investigation. Former councilman Hollman Morris, who made the complaint publicly, indicated that the analysis of the victims should continue because several families in the area have reported missing minors. Likewise, he pointed out that so far there is no official statement from that entity.

In the initial complaint, Morris stated that “The bodies of the children Jonathan Sánchez Zambrano, 15 years old, Sebastián Andrés Varón Rojas, 16 years old, Dana Lizet Montilla, 16 years old, killed in the bombing, are found in the Villavicencio morgue”, Adding that there are two more unidentified bodies.

According to RCN Villavicencio, eight of the ten bodies found in the area of ​​the bombing were identified, which correspond to an NN man between 20 and 25 years of age. Luisa Fernanda Felantana Quichoya 19 years old, Jhonatan Sánchez Zambrano 19 years old, Harrison Prada Cortés 20 years old, Andrés Sebastián Barón Rojas 19 years old, Yésica Lorena Joven Vargas 23 years old, Dana Liseth Montilla Marmolejo, 16 years old, Yudi Alexandra Restrepo Tovar, 25 years old, and Irian Manuel Vanegas Vásquez, 30 years old.

Regarding this information, the Senator Roy Barreras, who replied to Morris’s complaint, He noted that the age of two of those bodies, compared to their identity documents, would be 10 and 16-year-olds.

According to information from the presidential candidate, Jhonatan Sánchez Zambrano was born in Paujil, Caquetá, on June 30, 2011, so he would be 10 years old and not 19 as indicated. The same would happen with Andrés Sebastián Varón Rojas, 16 years old.

The Army also indicated on March 10 that “in the development of this military operation, to date, the following results have been achieved: 12 deaths in the development of military operations; the identity, sex and age will be established by the competent authorities. At the site there were also three captures and the recovery of two minors, who are already in the custody of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare in San José del Guaviare”.

Defense Minister Diego Molano, indicated in an interview with Blu Radio that the bombing in Calamar, Guaviare, had been carried out against a “Narco-terrorist structure that uses young people to turn them into war machines”, corresponding to the dissent of alias ‘Gentil Duarte’.

“They are making a claim that there were 12 children. What we had were war machines that were planning terrorist actions. Our Army plans operations against structures that plan hostilities. What we have here are children who are part of a war structure, capable of committing attacks, ”Diego Molano assured that medium.

The statement has generated outrage, because although the International human right considers that recruited minors can be legitimate targets, for this definition they must meet conditions such as actively participating in hostilities.

Likewise, the Colombian Childhood and Adolescence Code, in its article 7. establishes comprehensive protection for minors. “Comprehensive protection of children and adolescents is understood as the recognition as subjects of rights, the guarantee and fulfillment of the same, the prevention of its threat or violation and the security of its immediate reestablishment in development of the principle of superior interest ”.

Additionally, the The Geneva Agreement states that “children will be the object of special respect” and the parties to the conflict must take all actions to prevent minors from participating in hostilities. and minors between the ages of 15 and 18 are recruited.

“If children under 15 years of age participate, despite everything, directly in hostilities and fall into the power of the opposing party, they will continue to enjoy the protection of this article, whether or not they are prisoners of war. If they were arrested, detained or interned for reasons related to the armed conflict, children will be kept in places other than those destined for adults, except when members of the same family are housed together ”, it says in its article 77.

“The death penalty imposed for an offense committed in connection with the armed conflict to persons who, at the time of the offense, were under the age of eighteen will not be carried out,” adds the Geneva Agreement.

Apparently, a debate on political control by Roy Barreras is already being prepared in the Congress of the Republic, an action that recalls the same discussion in the Senate that took over the position of Defense Minister Guillermo Botero, due to a bombing in Caquetá where at least eight minors were killed.

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