The archbishop of Cali has condemned the Colombian government’s use of deadly force against leftist guerrilla group the FARC.
Archbishop Dario de Jesus Monsalve Mejia told RCN Radio that former FARC leader “Alfonso Cano”, killed in a military operation last month, should have been captured alive.
“Why didn’t they bring [him] in alive, when they saw all the conditions of absolute disparity and submission? [Why] zero in on a man who is over 60 years old, wounded, blind and alone?” Mejia said.
He also questioned why it was so important for the government to bring guerrilla ringleaders in dead, “without exhausting the ethical framework of a non-death penalty.”
With regards to Saturday’s “botched rescue attempt” of five FARC hostages that left four executed, Mejia again criticized the government’s use of military force.
He called on the state, society, and international community to take responsibility in the struggle against the FARC and ensure that hostages “return to freedom, but alive.”
Commenting on groups who promote FARC demobilization, Mejia warned, “It is useless to attempt to put all the responsibility on that organization. [People] forget their criminal nature, their stubborn ideology and their cornered situation that makes them incapable of performing as expected.”
The archbishop asked the Colombian government to “change the strategy of debilitating and exterminating the enemy, for the freedom of state servants’ lives, in order to avoid the suffering of their families.”
