Colombia’s army rescued six siblings who spent three days hiding in the rainforest in Caquetá province to avoid being captured by a rebel group, the Defense Ministry said. The ministry said the children were rescued in the early hours of Tuesday after the parents shared their children’s location with the army.
Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said on X that five children and an adult sister were airlifted from a remote location following a “precise operation” involving helicopters. Sánchez also said, “Attacking the civilian population, and especially minors is one of the worst inhumane acts, and when you do this repeatedly it becomes a war crime,” according to his remarks on Tuesday.
The Defense Ministry said the rebel group was led by Alexander Díaz, a former commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who is commonly known as Calarca. It said the group was attempting to capture the children after kidnapping their parents.
The ministry said the parents escaped captivity last week and sought refuge at a military base. It said the rebel group then threatened to capture the children, prompting the family to send a worker to hide the children in a rainforest near the family’s farm in the municipality of Cartagena del Chaira.
Díaz is described as one of several former FARC commanders who refused to join Colombia’s 2016 peace deal with the government. The Petro administration has attempted to hold peace talks with remaining rebel groups under a strategy known as “total peace,” the Defense Ministry said in its account of the group’s context.
The ministry said Díaz currently leads a group known as the EMBF, which is in peace talks with the administration of President Gustavo Petro. It also said the EMBF signed an agreement with the government last year in which it said it would not recruit minors.
International observers have said groups like the EMBF have used various ceasefires with Colombia’s military to regroup, rearm and tighten control over communities. As rebel groups expand across Colombia, the ministry said, they continue to commit grave crimes against civilians, including kidnapping, forced displacement and the recruitment of children.
The ministry cited UNICEF figures that say the forced recruitment of children by illegal armed groups in Colombia has quadrupled over the last five years. It also noted humanitarian groups’ warnings that the numbers could be an undercount because some families are reluctant to report cases of forced recruitment, fearing retribution from rebel groups.