Alarms were raised in Colombia following the attack on senator and presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, who was critically wounded by gunfire during a public event in Bogotá on June 7. What at first appeared to be another violent incident in the country’s political life soon took on a deeper and more troubling dimension.
Hours later, authorities confirmed that the main suspect in the attack was a 15-year-old boy, apprehended at the scene with a 9mm Glock pistol, a weapon traced back to the United States. President Gustavo Petro confirmed the information and revealed that the minor had previously dropped out of a state-run peace education program.
According to the newspaper El Tiempo, the teenager claimed he acted on orders from a drug trafficker known as "el hombre de la olla" (“the man of the pot”), a reference to a drug dealing zone in Bogotá. Authorities are now focusing on identifying the intellectual authors behind the attack, which reflects a grim and widespread practice in Colombia: the recruitment of minors by armed groups and criminal organizations.
According to data from the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office, at least 409 minors have been recruited so far in 2024, an increase from the 342 cases reported the previous year. Experts warn, however, that the real numbers may be significantly higher.
Child recruitment has a long and painful history in Colombia. Guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug cartels, and even state actors have used children as tools of war, executioners of crimes, informants, or hitmen. One of the most emblematic cases was that of John Jairo Arias Tascón, alias “Pinina,” a top hitman for Pablo Escobar who began his criminal path at age 15.
Another widely remembered case is the assassination of presidential candidate Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa in 1990, carried out by a 14-year-old boy at Bogotá’s airport, and the killing of Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, attributed to another minor trained by paramilitary forces, allegedly with the support of corrupt state agents.
Experts point out that the root of the issue lies in the extreme vulnerability of minors in Colombia. Many come from impoverished, rural, or marginalized urban areas lacking state presence or opportunity, making them easy targets for forced or voluntary recruitment driven by necessity, coercion, or the illusion of economic advancement.
In urban areas, minors often become involved in activities such as contract killing, drug dealing, extortion, and transporting weapons. In rural regions, they are frequently forcibly incorporated into armed groups. Their youth and malleability make them functional pawns within these criminal structures.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace estimates that over 18,000 minors were recruited by the FARC between 1996 and 2016. But armed conflict continues with other groups like the ELN, FARC dissidents, and the Clan del Golfo, which makes halting the phenomenon even harder.
The figures are alarming. In 2024 alone, 1,953 minors have been reported missing, with over half still unaccounted for. It is feared many of them have been forcibly recruited. The departments of Cauca, Putumayo, and Valle del Cauca are among the hardest hit, with the Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central), the main FARC dissident faction, identified as the top recruiter of children.
Even more concerning is the growing sophistication of recruitment methods. In June of this year, the BBC reported that armed groups are using platforms like TikTok to lure minors from remote areas of Colombia.
The attack on Uribe Turbay has once again exposed one of the most painful wounds of Colombia’s armed conflict: the use of children as instruments of war. Despite efforts to eradicate this practice, violence continues to claim the most vulnerable as its victims.
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