LatinNews Daily Report - 24 March 2014

POLITICS | Farc admits execution of abducted police officers. On 22 March the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerilla group issued a public statement admitting that its ‘Daniel Aldana’ column had killed two police officers kidnapped from the port city of Tumaco, Nariño department, on 15 March. The Farc said it lamented the murder of the officers, Edilmer Muñoz and Germán Méndez Pabón, but justified it on the grounds that the column had come under intense military pressure after the abduction. The announcement was repudiated by the government led by President Juan Manuel Santos, which pointed out that it undermines the ongoing peace talks it is holding with the Farc in Havana, Cuba. Colombia’s defence minister, Juan Carlos Pinzón, denounced the action as a ‘war crime’ and called on the Farc to turn over those responsible to the authorities. This call was backed by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which in a statement urged the Farc to hand over those responsible to the public ministry for prosecution. Meanwhile an official government statement issued yesterday (23 March) stressed:  “The fact that the peace talks are taking place in Havana in no way frees the Farc from its responsibilities to uphold international humanitarian law… nor exempts it from having to answer for human rights violations and war crimes”. The statement concluded that the murders of Muñoz and Méndez would be added to the 170 outstanding cases for which the Colombian authorities want Farc leaders prosecuted in international courts.

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