(Bogota) The Colombian government wants to create a “relationship of trust” between the people and the Colombian army, which will suspend its bombardments to avoid civilian casualties and the death of minors forcibly recruited by armed groups.
Posted yesterday at 2:40 p.m.
“We must create a new relationship of trust between the population and the police in the total peace process that we are trying to put in place,” said the Minister of Defense on Thursday.
Ivan Velasquez has the difficult task of implementing the new policy, more respectful of human rights, wanted by President Gustavo Petro, elected in June as the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia.
The objective is to have “an integral presence of the State – and not only of the public force – in the most isolated areas […] in order to generate greater confidence in the institutions”, pleaded the minister, stressing that the army could thus “take part in development projects”.
This policy of “total peace” is “the expression of a concrete goodwill […] All this does not mean weakness, peace is not a surrender of the government or the armed forces”.
“It is a process of collective construction” guaranteeing “dignified living conditions for the population” and “where illegal groups must also concretely demonstrate their willingness to negotiate”, according to the minister.
In a first concrete gesture, the government has decided to “suspend” military bombardments on the camps of armed groups where “minors recruited by force” could be found, he announced.
These minors “are victims […] We cannot pursue operations that endanger the civilian population or the lives of forcibly recruited minors,” Velasquez explained.
He spoke of “very painful acts of the past”, in reference to repeated complaints from civil society and the opposition about the deaths of miners in bombings under the outgoing government of right-wing President Ivan Duque (2018-2022).
In November 2019, then Defense Minister Guillermo Botero resigned after an aerial bombardment in which eight minors aged 12 to 17, recruited by an armed group, were killed.
The military bombardments have made it possible to eliminate several leaders of these groups, such as, for example, at the end of 2021 an important commander of the Guevaralist guerrillas of the ELN in the Pacific jungle.
During six decades of conflict, guerrillas like the Marxist FARC forcibly recruited thousands of young people and children.