The authorities have revealed a worrying situation in the department of Cauca, where minors are being used by the Carlos Patiño front, belonging to the FARC dissidents, to support the confrontations they are having with the National Army.
According to the information, the children were being used to carry out dangerous tasks in exchange for the sum of $5,000.
This revelation was confirmed thanks to a telephone interception carried out on one of the leaders of the armed group. In the recording, The insurgent leader ordered the use of minors to transport packages with explosives destined to be activated in the area of El Plateado, Cauca.
You may be interested in: Fenalper warns of concern over threats to Personeros
In one of the audio fragments, the man is heard saying:
«Hey, what are you waiting for, then, to start sending the little ones around? Some little ones, the smallest ones, so they can take the gift to the pimps. Oh? “Five thousand pesos, brother, five thousand pesos for them to get there.”
The leader’s order also indicated that the explosives had to be placed at strategic points in the township.: «Let them get to where the tanks are, or where they are sleeping. Brother, but we have to do that quickly, brother, we have to get the people out.
The authorities interpret that the objective of the illegal organization is to use children to transport these explosives, under the presumption that the minors would not arouse suspicion among the soldiers and would not be searched or inspected.
Military intelligence has identified that the voice in the audios would belong to a leader of the Carlos Patiño front, one of the most active groups in the region of El Plateado, Cauca.. This man would have been giving direct instructions to pay minors to transport ammunition and explosives, which would later be used in attacks against public forces.
Currently, in the municipality of El Plateado, the military forces have deployed a significant number of troops as part of Operation Perseo, whose objective is to weaken the armed structure of the dissidents and restore security in the region.
You can read: “We came out of this with more energy”: Fajardo spoke about the accident he suffered