Colombia’s Defense Minister General Freddy Padilla said Friday that he
feels ashamed of the scandal involving members of the armed forces
killing civilians and that he continues to collaborate with the justice
system in order to convict the guilty.
“We face ‘false positives‘ cases which we never would have imagined to be possible, like the one in Soacha. Cases that fill us with shame and horror”, Padilla stated according to El Espectador.
“The way the military operates has to be improved, considering Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law”, the Defense Minister added.
The trial against members of the army who are suspected of having murdered 11 men from Soacha to report them as guerrillas killed in combat started last Tuesday. More than a thousand members of the military are suspected of having killed civilians to make the war against illegal armed groups look more effective.