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Defense
Minister Juan Manuel Santos said that the ruling by Colombia’s State Council that regular soldiers and marines could not engage in combat only applied to one particular case.
Had the ruling been universally applicable, the number of troops in active service would have been diminished by almost 100,000.
However, after a meeting between
judges and the military, it was determined that the scope of the
ruling referred only to one specific case.
Commander of the Armed Forces, General Freddy
Padilla de León stressed that all soldiers sent into combat must first receive the necessary training.
Santos had previosuly described the ruling as “fatal” to the country’s armed forces.
