Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday called for an investigation into alleged rapes of indigenous minors by Colombian soldiers and an American citizen.
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Spanish-language US cable news channel Univision Noticias revealed in December that a US soldier living “in the facilities of a battalion” of the Colombian army in 2019 allegedly sexually abused a 10-year-old indigenous Nukak woman to become pregnant, in San José del Guaviare, a town in the Colombian Amazon (south).
Univision Noticias denounced a “growing phenomenon of rape of indigenous minors in the Guaviare region by mostly elderly white males, some of whom are military personnel”.
Gustavo Petro said on Twitter that he had “requested that a commission from the ICBF (Colombia Institute for Family Welfare) and the Presidency go to Guaviare immediately to investigate these allegations of child rape.”
“This horror has gone unpunished for years,” he added.
Prosecutors informed Univision Noticias that they have launched an investigation into allegations of abuse of Nukak children by Colombian and North American soldiers.
According to President Petro, “118 members of the Colombian army” are being investigated for these crimes.
When asked, the US Embassy in Bogotá said in a statement that its troops were not stationed in Guaviare in 2019.
The traditionally nomadic Nukak have been displaced by conflicts between armed groups and the government since the late 20th century. Today they live in precarious camps on the outskirts of rural areas and make a living by begging.
According to various NGOs, many children and young people end up in the hands of pimp networks who trade sexual favors for food, and some of them are addicted to drugs.
The Attorney General’s Office has been investigating since 2020 into the alleged rape of a 15-year-old indigenous Nukak girl by eight uniformed men.
In the same year, a 13-year-old indigenous girl was raped by a group of seven soldiers on patrol in the Embera Chami municipality area of Risaralda department (north-west). The soldiers were sentenced to 16 years in prison.