Colombian Soldiers To Be Imprisoned For Rapping Indigenous Girl

On Tuesday, the Pereira City High Court upheld the sentence against seven Colombian soldiers involved in the rape of a 12-year-old Embera Indigenous girl in the Risaralda department.

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While soldiers Juan Morales, Yair Gonzales, Juan Guaidia, Jose Holguin, Oscar Gil, and Deyson Isaza will serve a 16-year sentence, soldier Luis Mangareth will pay eight years in prison for his complicity in the abuse of the minor. 

Although the defense requested to drop the charges against the soldiers alleging that the due judicial process had been violated, the Court determined that the case was not disputable after analyzing over 160 investigative actions, which confirmed the participation of the soldiers in the sexual assault. 

On June 21, 2020, the Indigenous girl came to the call of a San Mateo Artillery Battalion soldier while she was heading her home in the Pueblo Rico town. “He started touching me. Minutes later, others arrived. One blocked my mouth so I would not scream. They told me that it was a secret and that I must not say anything," the girl said in the testimony.

After performing the examinations, the forensic doctor Campo Ochoa confirmed that the girl had been the victim of rape. The soldiers pleaded guilty to the crime last year.

The Colombian Armed Forces have discharged over 118 military personnel for their involvement in sexual assaults since 2016. Currently, the Colombian Justice investigates other 12 rape cases perpetrated by Army members.

"In the past, Colombians feared the Military. Now, however, our civil society is more active in denouncing their injustices," political scientist Ariel Avila pointed out, stressing that citizens will continue to speak out against cases of abuses of power.