The Colombian government says United States ambassador to Bogotá
William Brownfield denies the U.S. government has cut aid to Colombian
army units implicated in the growing scandal involving the army killing
civilians.
Both CNN and Reuters separately had quoted an anonymous U.S. government official who said the three army units that had personnel sacked, because of their involvement in human rights violations.
“I verified this with the ambassador. He told me that this information wasn’t true, that it was a misinterpretation of something that was said in Washington,” Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said told journalists.
The mentioned military units are suspected of being guilty of having kidnapped and murdered eleven civilians from Soacha, a town near Bogotá, to present them as combat kills, making their units seem more effective in the government’s fight against illegal armed groups.