Minister of Interior and Justice German Vargas Lleras chose not to contest the State Council’s ruling that the state failed to take appropriate measures to prevent the 1996 “Las Delicias” FARC attack, El Espectador reported Tuesday.
“I’m not accustomed to comment on the faults, in particular this one I have not had an opportunity to look at in detail, but each conviction brought against the Colombian State affects us, in the past weeks there have been various,” said the minister in a report from RCN Radio.
The council sentenced the state to pay nearly $1 million (COP1.68 billion) to family members of three victims of the 1996 FARC attack on the “Las Delicias” military base in Colombia’s southern Putumayo department, for grave errors made on the night of the invasion in which over 100 people were either killed, injured or taken hostage.
Colombian Congress has invited the military leaders under then-President, Ernesto Samper Pizano, to explain what mistakes were made that day in an effort to prevent events such as these from occurring again.
“The country needs to know the responsibility of the security forces,” said Alexandra Moreno Piraquive a senator who is pushing the former military officials to speak.