On Sunday, Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office urged President Abelardo de la Espriella not to compete with armed groups in the level of cruelty displayed after the recent escalation of clashes following the president’s release of a video in which he walks among bagged corpses of alleged dissidents of the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“The State and the government cannot be carried away by a competition to show who can be crueler. They cannot dispute with armed groups who produces more fear, who humiliates the adversary more, or who turns death into a demonstration of power,” said Ombudsman Iris Marín in a statement shared on social media.
The Ombudsman directly questioned the images released after a military operation carried out last week in the department of Guaviare, in which 23 alleged combatants were killed. “Our country has spent decades facing different cycles of armed conflict and organized crime. However, I do not remember seeing a president walking among the dead and feeling proud of those deaths,” Marín added.
El Estado y el Gobierno no pueden entrar en una competencia por demostrar quién puede ser más cruel. Precisamente porque es el Estado, su actuación tiene límites.
Enfrentar militarmente a los grupos armados ilegales y proteger a la población es un deber constitucional. Pero… pic.twitter.com/bNq3L0VnUe
— Defensoría del Pueblo (@DefensoriaCol) September 6, 2026
The president has reiterated his line of containment focused on military force, ruling out his predecessor’s stance of negotiation with irregular groups. “True peace is built with armed force and the laws of the Republic,” de la Espriella said, promising to defeat organized crime “by reason or by force.”
Recent military incursions
Amid the escalation of military actions, the Colombian president confirmed the deaths of at least seven members of the Central General Staff (EMC) during clashes in El Peñol, department of Nariño.
“In the last 24 hours, seven narco-terrorists of the Franco Benavides front of the Central General Staff, the FARC dissidents, died during military operations in El Peñol, Nariño, and five people were captured,” the president reported through his official channels.
The Defense Ministry reported 12 people wounded in the operation, along with the seizure of an M4 rifle, a pistol, eight homemade grenades, 946 cartridges of various calibers, informational banners, and notebooks with intelligence notes.
Security balance and complaints about deaths of minors
Security forces dismantled five cocaine base paste laboratories and seized over 1,000 gallons of liquid inputs and 175 kilos of solid material in the latest operation.
They also confiscated 6,000 milliliters of ketamine and 600 milliliters of fentanyl, and intervened in seven production units and seven dredges used for illegal mining.
According to official figures claimed by de la Espriella, there have been “14,914 captures, 49,379 kilos of narcotics seized, 1,485 firearms taken out of circulation, and 1,320.9 hectares of coca eradicated,” since the beginning of his term on August 7.
The “iron fist” policy applied in Colombian territory has triggered alerts due to its impact on the civilian population and particularly minors. At the end of August, a bombing carried out against FARC dissidents in Guaviare caused the deaths of ten people, among whom three adolescents were identified: two 15-year-olds and one 16-year-old.
For this reason, the Third Penal Circuit Court of San José del Guaviare ordered President Abelardo de la Espriella and the National Army to refrain from bombing targets of illegal armed groups if there are reports or indications of the presence of minors in the area.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SF
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