Colombian military forces carried out another bombing against alleged facilities of opponents of Ivan Mordesco in Amazonas province on October 1. Although Military Intelligence later confirmed that it opened fire because it recognized Mordescu’s presence, it later reported that the leader of the illegal group had escaped. Instead, they reported that four people had been arrested and four others “killed.” However, later reports from the institution that legally accompanies the families of those killed indicate that they were all minors. In addition, one of the minors injured in the operation is Luis Carlos Abarca Vilches, 10 years old.
The Charitable and Legal Foundation for Peace accompanied the families of minors who were bombed in the area known as the Three Islands, between the municipalities of Puerto Santander and Merite Paraná. The foundation said in a statement, “The evidence collected and community testimonies indicate that the operations did not occur as they were officially reported, and that among the victims were civilian minors.” At that time, when the Ministry of Defense announced the success of the operation, they confirmed it to the newspaper the time Which “are formulated in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law and human rights.”
The institution’s first public complaint about the killings of constitutionally protected minors came 10 days later, on October 11. One of the first known names was 15-year-old Javier Alcides Abarca Vilches. His younger brother, 10-year-old Luis Carlos Abarca Vilches, was injured and survived the attack. Vanessa Martinez Caicedo, 12, also appears in the organization’s documents; Indi Taminuka Liutama, also 12, and Ronald Stephen Makona Taninuka, 15.
According to a military source. the time At that time, “members of Ivan Mordescu’s security circle were among those killed.” That is, the alleged security circle consisted of children between the ages of 10 and 15 years. The Ministry of Defense did not publish the names or pseudonyms, as is usual. In the face of media pressure over possible violations of international human rights, which suggested that with children and teenagers there was no way to shoot in the middle of a war, President Gustavo Petro posted a tweet on his X account in which he acknowledged that minors were victims of forced conscription. “They are all victims of forced recruitment by criminals who took them into hostilities and denied them protection.”
Complaints about this bombing, which did not receive much media coverage at the time, came a month before a more recent operation. On 10 November 2025, military forces, by direct order of the President, carried out a bombing in the municipality of Calamar, Guaviare, against another camp linked to dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) led by Ivan Mordesco. According to the Ministry of Defense, the measure was also carried out in relation to international humanitarian law, although it admitted that there were minors among the dead. In all, 19 people died, including seven minors, as revealed by the coroner and the Ombudsman’s Office.
After obtaining prior permission from their families, El País newspaper revealed the identities of five of the seven minors who were injured in the bombing: Danny Santiago Leyton Cuellar (15 years old), born in the municipality of Fortul (Arauca). Denny Lorena Beltran Mendoza (16 years old), born in Tebo, Norte de Santander. Maicol Andres Pérez Avila (16 years old), originally from Miraflores (Guaviare) and Martha Elena Abarca Vilches (17 years old), from Puerto Leguizamo, Putumayo.
The two operations, which took place only a month apart and in which minors were identified among the victims in both cases, once again placed at the center the main obligation of the state in war scenarios: ensuring that no armed action is carried out in areas where children and adolescents are present. With a government that defends the non-violation of human rights, the government’s political contradictions will be exposed in the legislature this week, where the first motion of censure against Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez has already been proposed.
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