On Oct. 24, Colombian army troops opened fire on community leader Lever Castrillon Sarmiento and his eight-year-old son as the two were fishing near the village of Norosi, Rio Viejo municipality, in Bolivar department. The group of 40 soldiers from the Nueva Granada Battalion of the army’s Fifth Brigade were seeking to ambush a guerrilla column, and apparently mistook Castrillon and his son for rebels. Castrillon was killed by a bullet to the chest, while his son was treated in a local hospital for a bullet wound in the knee and was declared out of danger. The local attorney general’s office in Rio Viejo has opened an investigation into the incident. (Vanguardia Liberal, Bucaramanga; El Tiempo, Bogota, Oct. 26)
From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 26
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