Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday January 13 called for investigations into alleged rapes of indigenous minors by Colombian soldiers and an American national.
Spanish-language US news channel Univision Noticias revealed last December that a US serviceman who “
lived in the facilities of a battalion
” of the Colombian army in 2019 allegedly sexually abused an indigenous woman. 10-year-old Nukak, who is believed to have become pregnant, in San José del Guaviare, a city in the Colombian Amazon (south).
Univision Noticias denounced a "
growing phenomenon of rape of indigenous minors in the Guaviare region by mostly older white men, some of whom are soldiers
".
“This horror has gone unpunished for years”
Gustavo Petro said on Twitter that he "
requested that a commission from the ICBF (Colombian Institute for Family Welfare) and the presidency go immediately to Guaviare to investigate these allegations of rape of minors
".
“
This horror has gone unpunished for years
,” he added.
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The prosecutor's office told Univision noticias that it has taken up an investigation into these allegations of abuse of Nukak children by Colombian and North American soldiers.
According to President Petro, "
118 members of the Colombian army
" are under investigation for these crimes.
When questioned, the US Embassy in Bogota said in a statement that its troops were not deployed in Guaviare in 2019.
A very precarious people
Traditionally nomadic, the Nukak have been displaced by conflict between armed groups and the government since the end of the 20th century.
Today, they live in precarious camps on the outskirts of rural areas and live by begging.
According to various NGOs, many children and adolescents end up in the hands of pimping networks that exchange sexual favors for food, and some of them are addicted to drugs.
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The Attorney General's office has been investigating since 2020 the alleged rape of a 15-year-old indigenous Nukak girl by eight uniformed men.
The same year, a 13-year-old indigenous girl was raped by a group of seven soldiers on patrol in the territory of the Embera Chami community, in the department of Risaralda (North-West).
The soldiers were sentenced to 16 years in prison.
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