Seven military officers have been suspended over the murder of three children in the Arauca department, announced army commander General Alejandro Navas.
Armed forces commander Admiral Edgar confirmed that the four officers and three non-commissioned officers were suspended following repeated complaints by the local population, due to failure to control and command troops, reports El Espectador.
Navas said that he will not tolerate human rights violations by the army and that he will obey the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office and Inspector General’s Office in regard to this matter.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is investigating 60 members of two battalions from the 5th Brigade who were active close of the place where the children were murdered.
The bodies of the three siblings, Jenny, Jimmy Ferney, and Jeferson Torres Jaimes, aged 14, 9, and 6 years respectively, were found with signs of torture four days after they disappeared on October 14 in a mass grave, 100 meters from where the soldiers are based.
The 5th Brigade has also been linked to the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl in Arauca on October 2.