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Ten soldiers suspected of having threatened villagers with their weapons in a rural area of northern Colombia, have been suspended, local media reported, citing official source.
The colombian government described the incident as “extremely serious”.
“As soon as it became aware of the facts, the army command (…) immediately took the necessary measures by launching an investigation,” the head of the Army, General Luis Mauricio Ospina, said in a statement.
“I made the decision to withdraw their confidence and responsibility to bear arms (…),” he added.
According to images broadcast at the beginning of the week on social networks and then relayed by the national press, soldiers with masked faces and wearing no identification badge threatened farmers with their weapons, including frightened women and children, in the rural town of Tierralta, in the department of Cordoba, a drug trafficking zone where several armed groups are active.
On Thursday, President Petro again spoke vehemently on the subject. “No soldier should ever again lend himself to shooting a young boy and killing peasants. (…) Do not bring Colombia back to the past, to the barbarity of the past,” he warned.
