Six military officials are being investigated by Colombia’s Prosecutor’s General’s Office for allegedly killing two men in 2003 and then presenting them as guerrillas killed in combat.
The men will be investigated for their role in the killing of Alfonso Gomez Gutierrez and Abeladan Posada Amariles on 20 July, 2003, in Campamento, Antioquia. According to the prosecution these men were civilians with no ties to guerrilla groups.
More than a thousand members of the armed forces are currently being investigated for allegedly killing civilians and reporting them as guerrillas killed in combat in order to inflate their kill statistics.
In October 2008, 17 cases of these “false positives” were revealed to have taken place in Soacha, an area south of Bogota. Two years later, only two cases have been brought to court and are awaiting judgement.