Six minors have been killed in airstrikes on drug-trafficking Colombian guerrillas since right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella took office last month, authorities said Friday.
Four minors had already been reported killed in two earlier bombardments in the same Amazon department of Guaviare and in the northeastern Catatumbo region bordering Venezuela. The new president, a tough-talking lawyer, has vowed to crush the rebels, who engage in drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion. He has flaunted his crackdown in social media posts that have garnered thousands of likes. In one recent video, he can be seen walking between shrouded corpses laid out in rows on the ground. That video caused an outcry from his critics, who accused him of glorifying the killings. Rights groups warn that children and teens recruited by armed groups through slick social media campaigns are being swept up in the violence. Left-wing former president Gustavo Petro also ordered airstrikes on rebel camps, in which minors were present, when his peace process faltered. als/cb/md This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
De la Espriella, a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, has ordered three bombardments that have left at least 42 dead since his inauguration on August 7. Two of them died on August 31 in a bombing that killed a total of 24 suspected members of a dissident faction of the defunct rebel group FARC in the Amazon region, the forensic institute said. The guerrillas rejected a landmark peace deal between the state and FARC in 2016. The two minors were aged 16, a source from the institute told AFP. The August 31 strikes in Guaviare were the deadliest so far under De la Espriella, who broke off peace talks with the country’s various armed groups launched by the previous left-wing government. Colombia’s ombudsman reported 428 cases of child recruitment by armed groups last year.
The National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences said that six minors had been killed so far. A report published by Human Rights Watch last week said that, in some cases, children were being used as “cannon fodder. On Thursday, a judge ordered him to suspend bombings of guerrilla camps if information suggested the presence of minors recruited by the guerrillas.
