Military and Police Criminal Justice has opened an investigation into the events in San Vicente del Caguan

On Thursday March 2, 2023, around 5 a.m., it was learned that peasants from San Vicente del Caguan they maintained sharp confrontations with the police force, these events made a policeman and a farmer died.

The officer who lost his life amid the protests has been identified as Second Lieutenant Arley Monroy, who had been at the facility for 14 years. According to reports from the authorities, his death was recorded as a result of wounds he received in the head and neck.

For these deaths, the Military and police criminal justice opened an investigation against certain commanders of the public force, for a possible omission of support; as well as, for the killings of 2nd Lieutenant Monroy and a peasant amid protests against the oil company Emerald Energy in the department of Caquetá, in the south of the country.

The clashes reportedly began at dawn on Thursday, March 2, 2023, when suspected members of the peasant guard entered to set fire to the facilities of the oil company and demand money.

The investigation of the Military and Police Criminal Justice is known after the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation announced, on March 6, 2023, the opening of a preliminary investigation against the Ministers of the Interior, Alfonso Prada, and Defense, Iván Velásquez, for the same facts.

According to the attorney general’s office, the investigation would take place “due to the alleged omission of their duties during the demonstrations that took place in San Vicente del Caguan in which 79 police officers were detained for more than 24 hours”.

With the investigation, according to the information shared by the control entity, it seeks to establish the facts of disciplinary incidence in which the ministers could incur; as well as “determine the circumstances of time, manner and place in which the events reported by the media took place”.

There Office of the Attorney General of the Nation He also announced that he hoped to investigate the behavior of Ministers Prada and Velásquez which, by action and omission, could be considered disciplinary misconduct.

“The entity maintained that it will investigate the behaviors that Prada Gil and Velásquez Gómez may have displayed by action or omission and decide whether they may constitute a disciplinary offense in light of the General Disciplinary Code, for which it has requested the practice of proof leading to the clarification of the situation”.

the lawyer daisy hair assured that the investigation is based on the various alerts that, from the office of the Attorney General, have been sent to the national government about tensions between the peasants of San Vicente del Caguan and the oil company Emerald Energy.

According to Cabello, “in our way of seeing things, much of this tragedy could have been avoided if the requests made by the Attorney General’s office had been met in time”.

Defense Minister Iván Velásquez spoke about the investigation and defended the army’s actions in the situation that led to the kidnapping of more than 70 policemen by peasants.

Regarding the facts, Minister Velásquez assured that an attempt had been made to exhaust all possible avenues of dialogue with the peasants before provoking a major tragedy, since, according to Velásquez, the only action that the soldiers could carry out was pull against the community.

“We regret and reject the death of the sub-intendant, because it hurts us, but to go from there to claim, as I have heard from some, that the army was in control and why they did not control the situation, so the only control that could be done was by shooting and I think that Colombian society has to make this reflection, we want a death as tragic as it could have been with a reaction from the army.”