The individual forcibly recruited minors to link them to the ranks of the Organized Armed Group, GAO, Eln, through threats against family members, in order to sexually exploit them and enter the armed structure. These individuals had increased these operations against minors taking advantage of the absence of school classes due to covid-19.
Troops of the National Army in military operations, in an inter-institutional work with the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, the Colombian Institute for Family Wellbeing, ICBF, and attending to early warning No. 003 of 2019, achieve the flagrant capture of alias Jordan or Gato, urban ringleader of the GAO Eln terrorist support networks. Troops also achieved the recovery of three girls and two boys, who were forcibly recruited by terrorists of the Front Resistencia Guamoco to become part of the Armed structure, exploit them sexually and as humans couriers.
The military operation that was carried out with the information provided by the Civic Participation Network, took place in Los Aguacates, in a rural area of the municipality of El Bagre, Antioquia, where the soldiers protecting the minors captured alias Jordan, who had recruited them illegally through threats against the families of the minors, deceiving them with false promises of money, technological devices and a better lifestyle. Apparently, the 5 minors would be taken to a training camp in the Serranía de Guamoco, where presumably the girls would be handed over to the ringleaders and the boys would be part of the Armed structure.
In the same way, it was possible to establish that the man was part of the GAO Eln terrorism support networks in 2018 and 2019 in the municipality of Puerto López, later, due to his criminal experience, he assumes as urban ringleader in the municipalities of Zaragoza and El Bagre, where he is appointed as minors recruiter for the illegal organization.
During the operation, the discovery of two firearms was possible, these arms would be used by alias Jordan apparently to constraint the minors. This individual was put into custody of the authorities, who decided to put him into prison for the crime of manufacturing, trafficking, carrying or possessing firearms.
The minors were handed over to delegates of the Colombian Institute for Family Wellbeing (ICBF) and taken to the city of Medellín, Antioquia, where a comprehensive protocol for the restoration of their rights was carried out.
To date, the soldiers of the Seventh Division of the Army have recovered 71 minors, 58 in Antioquia, 5 in Córdoba and 8 Chocó. The GAO Clan del Golfo has lost 24 minors, the GAO Eln 10, the dissents five and the GAO Los Caparros one; organized crime groups have lost seven and the common crime groups 24.
The National Army ratifies its commitment to protect children and adolescents and prevent these groups from continuing to recruiting them, which becomes a war crime and a clear violation of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
Source: National Army - News Agency
