Colombia: Denunciations about
Paramilitary Children
BOGOTA - Colombian paramilitary groups
recruited around 3,000 children during a
period of an increased criminal activity of
these armed organizations, according to the
media on Sunday.
In recent years, around 1,200 of the
currently demobilized paramilitaries joined
these illegal organizations when they were
children.
A program of the Office of the Commissioner
for Peace and Reintegration proposes to
recognize those children as war victims and
it has already located 230 of them.
Commando groups of the United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia (AUC) recruited 433
children in the Atlantic Coast, 428 in Uraba,
300 in the Bolivar region, 151 in Magdalena
and 150 in the area of Catatumbo and
Cordoba, according to El Tiempo daily.
At present, there is a 50-people team
looking for those children that were part of
paramilitary groups throughout the country
and it has already identified 236 cases,
according to the source.
According to Reinaldo Cardenas, also known
as El Coplero, the children were forced to
join the paramilitaries since the groups
were in an expansion period from the year
2000 to 2002 and needed more members.
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