Colombia: 10 police officers arrested in triple murder case, fugitive colonel

On July 25, 11 Colombian police officers were accused of killing three men, ages 18, 22 and 26, in a town in the department of Sucre. The youths were arrested during a police raid and their bodies were taken to hospital hours later, with bullet wounds and signs of torture, family members and their lawyers said. Pictures of their arrests, which were broadcast at the time on social networks, showed the three men alive, one on the road, one standing, another kneeling and the last one lying, surrounded and pointed at by the police.

According to the new chief of police, General Henri Sanabria, police officers appointed by President Gustavo Pedro have been accused of “defaming the name of the institution, defying all constitutional and legal parameters”.

Ten people have been arrested, and an eleventh, Colonel Benjamin Nunez, the police commander of Sucre’s entire department, who is accused of shooting the victims himself, is still at large, the prosecutor’s office said. The Colombian press reports that the officer may have taken refuge in Mexico, and an Interpol Red Notice has been issued against him by Colombian authorities.

The three victims were accused by police of killing a police officer in a neighboring municipality and then falsely posing as members of the country’s main criminal organization, Clán del Golfo, in an apparent war against security forces. Their massacre was a “false positive”, recalling the more than 6,000 civilians arrested and executed by the military, then presented as insurgents killed in battle to boost statistics.

New leftist President Gustavo Pedro, elected last June, has promised a major overhaul of the police in 2021, which has been particularly questioned for its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests. In Colombia, the police depend on the Ministry of Defense and actively participate in the fight against drug trafficking and various armed groups operating in the country.