Colombia’s chief ombudsman, Iris Marin, clashed with the national government after she criticized President Abelardo de la Espriella for walking among the corpses of people killed by the military.
In a public statement, Marin reiterated that “in recent days, we saw the president of the Republic walking among the bodies—in white body bags—of people who were killed during Operation “Azarías” in Guaviare.”
“I don’t recall ever seeing a president walking among the dead and taking pride in those deaths,” said the ombudsman, whose office is independent from the government.
The state and the government cannot allow themselves to be drawn into a competition to see who can be the cruelest. They cannot compete with armed groups over who instills the most fear, who humiliates the adversary the most, or who turns death into a display of power.
Ombudsman Iris Marin
According to Marin, the military has the right to kill citizens, but must do so with respect for the Constitution and International Humanitarian Law, and is responsible for “the way that the State exercizes power and communicates its results.”
In a response, Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara said that the Ombudman falsely equated the State with “narcoterrorist groups as if it wer competing with them in cruelty.”
“Such an equivalence is inappropriate,” said Lara and called on the Ombudsman’s Office to be “an ally of the victims and of our mission to protect them and to liberate them from the terror regime of crime.”
Marin told Lara that she trusted that “the President and the Government will reflect on the way they communicate operational results, as I requested in my statement.”
De la Espriella’s stroll through the 23 body bags, including those of two minors, was also fiercely criticized in independent and foreign media.
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