Rape of Indigenous Girl by Military Shocks Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The collective rape of an indigenous girl of the Embera Chamí people moved Colombia. The first investigations point to a group of Army soldiers, and the Office of the Prosecutor General has already launched an urgent investigation into the sexual abuse that took place on Monday in the district of Santa Cecilia, municipality of Pueblo Rico, in the central department of Risaralda.

The soldiers belong to the San Mateo battalion, the Army said in a statement in which it confirmed that “the lamentable event was brought to the attention of the unit commander by a sub-officer” and immediately reported to the relevant authorities.

“Of the utmost severity and completely reprehensible the sexual abuse of an indigenous girl by soldiers, was denounced in Pereira [the capital of Risaralda],” Carlos Holmes Trujillo, the Minister of Defense, said on his social media when he announced he had directed the Army to cooperate with the investigation. “Those responsible deserve a harsh punishment,” he said.

In turn, the indigenous authorities of Pueblo Rico said that the under-12-year-old, who lives in a reserve in the region, was kidnapped on Sunday and beaten “by an undetermined number of soldiers”. She was found on Monday night near a local school and rushed to a local hospital. The Prosecutor’s Office has specifically pointed to eight soldiers as the “alleged perpetrators”, although the platoon comprises approximately 30 soldiers.

The case escalates the debate about violence against minors at a particularly delicate time. Last week, Congress passed a constitutional reform that allows life imprisonment for child murderers and rapists, an old desire of the more conservative sectors that counted on the decisive support of the government of Iván Duque. The controversial reform, criticized by experts and academics, will still pass through the Constitutional Court’s scrutiny.

The President was quick to classify the crime in the renewed controversy over life imprisonment. “This country has to vigorously and forcefully tackle any attack on a minor. Any murder or any rape, whoever it may be. And here we cannot be tolerant of any such conduct. We must be decisive,” he said on Wednesday, as soon as the news surfaced.

“It pains me that members of the Public Forces are pointed out for committing the rape of an indigenous girl, but let’s get to the bottom of this investigation. And if we get to debut life imprisonment with them, so be it”, he said, although this does not fall to the Executive, and the reform still needs several additional bills to govern it.

“We will be relentless in the investigation and we must be relentless in the punishment,” the President concluded.

Source: El País