BOGOTA—At least one of five peasants slain by soldiers in what President Alvaro Uribe Vélez called an honest mistake was shot execution-style, officials here have revealed.
The victims, including a 6-month-old baby and three teenagers, died April 11 near the Tolima Province town of Cajamarca, 90 miles west of Bogotá. The Army claimed the five were mistaken for guerrillas and shot from a distance. Uribe, visiting mourners the day after the killing, called it a “good-faith error.”
Two months later, inspector general Edgar Maya Villazón’s office is opening a criminal investigation. “At least one of the victims had a wound produced by a gun fired at a distance of less than 60 centimeters [2 feet], which differs from statements by some of the soldiers, who said they shot at a distance of more than 20 meters [22 yards] and with difficult visibility,” the office said in a June 22 statement.
The government has faced mounting criticism for failing to prosecute those responsible for a string of military killings called errors. In February, strafing from an Air Force helicopter killed a captain and soldier of the Army. On March 19, Army soldiers killed seven National Police officers and four civilians in the southwestern province of Nariño. On April 12, Army soldiers killed three fellow troops in the southeastern province of Meta. On June 16, a bomb dropped from an Air Force plane killed an Army soldier in the southern province of Caquetá.
Opposition lawmakers and human rights groups have blamed the incidents in part on pressure from Uribe for battlefield wins.
In a June 24 statement, Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe Echavarría said he had ordered polygraph tests for soldiers involved in the Tolima and Nariño incidents and said civilian justice officials would have access to the results.
