Colombia’s defence minister is facing calls to resign amid growing indignation over his callous response to the death of at least one child in a government airstrike against dissident rebels.
After reports that several minors were among the dead left by the bombing raid, Diego Molano said on Wednesday that any young victims were “machines of war” who had been indoctrinated by the guerrillas.
“It’s not like they were studying for their school exams,” said Molano, who once headed Colombia’s child welfare agency. He would not confirm if any minors had been killed, but said that the airstrike was entirely legal.
Molano’s comments incensed many in a country long used to the horrors of civil war, with the hashtags “Machines of War” and “Molano Resign” trending on Twitter.
“The state should reach the regions in order to guarantee housing, food, health and education,” tweeted Heidy Sánchez, a Bogotá councilwoman. “[But] in Colombia it arrives to drop bombs. Who are the machines of war?”
The 2 March airstrike in the eastern Guaviare province targeted dissident rebels who once belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Those dissidents, under the leadership of a commander known by the alias Gentil Duarte, split with the Farc after the group’s 2016 peace deal with the government.
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That agreement formally ended over five decades of bitter war that killed more than 260,000 people and forced over 7 million to flee their homes. During the war, the Farc and other rebel groups recruited minors – a practice that dissident factions have continued.
Local news reports and opposition lawmakers have claimed that as many as 12 minors may have perished in the operation, though forensic authorities have not yet confirmed the ages or identities of the dead. The defence ministry only said that 12 people had been killed.
At least one child – Danna Lizeth Montilla, 16 – is known to have perished in the strike. Her father, Jhon Albert Montilla, told the local newspaper El Tiempo on Thursday that she had been staying with family in the rural region, and may have been forcibly recruited by the rebels.
“It’s something that has become common,” Montilla told the newspaper. “But I never thought it would happen to my daughter.”
Montilla added that the defence minister’s insensitive comments did little to help. “For the minister of defence, children aged 13 14, and 16 have been turned into ‘war machines’,” he said. “It is very sad that kids are called that.”
The incident was not the first time children have been killed by government bombs. After eight children were killed in an August 2019 bombing raid, the then defence minister, Guillermo Botero, resigned. He had also been accused of attempting to cover up the identities and ages of those killed.
Adam Isacson, a Colombia expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, said that while the government may be able to prove that it followed International Humanitarian Law, the real outcry is over Molano’s response.
“One would expect a top security policymaker to say, ‘Even though we feel we followed the law, this is a tragedy. It’s heartbreaking that the armed group put children in harm’s way. These kids never had a chance at a better life, and we Colombians have to do better for them,’” Isacson said.
“Instead, Diego Molano portrayed these children as expendable killers who deserved what they got,” he said. “That kind of dehumanising language stripped Molano himself of his humanity, and it’s an absolutely terrible message to send to an armed forces with a difficult history of human rights abuse.”
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