A FARC dissidence denied this Sunday the murder of Colombian Army Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Enrique Pérez, whom he kidnapped on April 18 in the department of Arauca, and released a video of the military as proof of survival, reports EFE.
The FARC's 28th José María Córdoba Front described as a "false media positive" the information given last Friday by the Army "where it is stated, irresponsibly and lying to the country and his family, that Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Enrique Pérez Arciniegas was murdered."
The statement was read by a guerrilla in the jungle and the respective video published by the Noticias Saravena portal, from that city of Arauca.
The Colombian Army denounced on Friday that the dissidents of the former guerrilla supposedly assassinated the lieutenant colonel without his body having been recovered until that moment.
"FALSE INFORMATION"
The self-proclaimed 28th Front of the FARC said today that the truth is that "a commando of mercenaries entered to try to rescue him (the lieutenant colonel) without success, and those who managed to escape left with false information."
"We know that it would be a victory for the National Army if we were to kill Colonel Pérez because their arrogance, their arrogance, their pride do not allow them to admit that one of their men is a prisoner of war," says the commander of that dissident group in the video.
In addition, the military officer Pérez, who appears in the video, sent a greeting to his family and his wife, and asked that his release be negotiated.
"We have to face things, and as long as I'm here breathing, we're alive, we're alive. Sometimes things aren't as they seem, I wish we could reach a negotiation," said the kidnapped man.
So far, neither the Army nor the Colombian government have commented on the dissidents' statements, which also accuse them of not having made "any effort to reach a negotiated end so that the high-ranking officer can return to his family."
