Leftist guerrilla group the FARC denied allegations that they are responsible for kidnapping the 10-year-old daughter of the mayor of the northeast Colombian town of Fortul.
The FARC’s 10th Front issued a public statement on the organization’s website claiming that the FARC is in no way related to the September 29 kidnapping.
“We outright reject such claims that do not correspond with reality,” the guerrillas said. The FARC’s 10th Front “makes it known to the public opinion that none of our units has anything to with this abduction that we condemn without hesitation.”
The guerrilla group suggested that the kidnapping may be part of a military conspiracy against them. They argued that the people who blamed them are part of the same military responsible for other atrocities, such as the alleged triple homicide of three children and the rape of two by a lieutenant, as well as “false positives,” the scandal in which members of the Colombian military killed civilians and posed them as members of guerrilla groups killed in combat to increase their reported kill counts.
“The abduction of the child seems modeled on the psychological operations manuals of the military intelligence agencies, in order to shape the regional and national opinion in favor of the escalation of war led from the highest government levels,” read the FARC’s statement.
The commander of police in the Arauca department originally blamed the FARC’s 10th Front for the kidnapping the day of the attack.
Colombia’s second largest guerrilla group ELN also recently claimed that they had knowledge that the FARC were responsible.
Nhora Valentina Muñoz, daughter of Mayor Jorge Muñoz, has been held captive for two weeks. According to Mayor Muñoz, he recently received a call from the kidnappers and is feeling more secure about the girl’s safety.
“I am much calmer now that the uncertainty has gone … We know now who has her. At the moment I am not authorized to give information to the public, only to say that we have had first contact and that the girl is fine,” Muñoz told reporters October 3.
The kidnapping caused a wave of indignation in Colombia, whose government offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the kidnappers. Colombian Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras called the kidnapping of a child a “crime against humanity.”