One army colonel was arrested and the arrest of eight other members
of the military was warranted Wednesday. All are suspected of having
murdered four civilians in the west of Colombia in 2004.
The colonel is suspected of having led the army troops that murdered four young men in Acandi, Choco on February 12, 2004. The four men were then registered as guerrillas of the FARC’s 57th front who were killed in combat.
The army officials allegedly planted automatic rifles, a radio, a mortar on the bodies of their victims to make them look like members of the Marxist guerrilla group.
The colonel was arrested by Prosecution officials in a military school in the north of Bogota after the Prosecutor General’s Office found evidence the victims were recruited for work in Sincelejo only to be murdered by the army.
He is charged with multiple homicide of protected persons and forced disappearance.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is currently investigating approximately 1,200 members of the military who are suspected of having murdered civilians to make the war against leftist rebels look more effective.