The recent murder in east Colombia of an indigenous man who after his death was dressed to look like a member of the FARC, was a “military error” according to the army, Noticias Uno reported Tuesday.
Nearly a month after a soldier shot a man in Arauca — on the border with Venezuela — who was identified as fallen guerrilla financial leader alias “Humberto Peroza Wampiare,” the army has admitted that the murder and subsequent identification was a mistake, and that the man was actually an indigenous leader from the La Voragine indigenous community.
“He was from the community, it was a military error,” stated army officials.
Lawyers of the leader’s family are now asking the Arauca Prosecutor General’s Office to process the military members who participated in the operation for aggravated homicide, for the false positive killing of the indigenous leader.
“… It should be aggravated homicide. It was an act on a protected person, civil, of the indigenous communities of Arauca … the specialized Prosecutor General’s Office of Arauca that is investigating the case will be solicited [to classify it as such],” said lawyer Marcela Cruz.
Earlier in the month, the army announced that it would initiate an investigation against the soldiers that participated in the killing, which occurred in a rural part of the Arauquita municipality.