The United Nations on Monday called for an investigation into the murder of two Venezuelan teenagers accused of theft and later executed in a community in northeastern Colombia.
In videos and photos posted on social networking sites, the two boys appear inside a store, trying to steal and are caught in the act. The youngest of them, who does not even look like a teenager, was holding a red school backpack.
Looking devastated, with their hands tied with adhesive tape, they are surrounded by many people who are heard preaching to them: “Unfortunately, they are two very young children, we do not want to see you lying on the side of the road tomorrow, we will hand you over to the Authorities “, Says a man.
According to the photos, the two children were later found dead, on a rural road, where they were apparently executed with a bullet in the chest. The child with the red backpack was placed a cardboard where someone had written the word “thief”.
The children were killed in the community of Thimphu, in the province of North Santander, which borders Venezuela and where many armed and criminal organizations are active.
Local authorities condemned the “unacceptable violence” and the killings of “a minor and a young adult”.
In a post on Twitter, the representative of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Colombia also condemned the “murder of a 12-year-old child” and called on the authorities to investigate the facts. However, he did not mention the second victim.
The commander of the North Santander police, Colonel Carlos Martinez, said that before the police arrived, “armed men on motorcycles arrived on the scene, took the two children and killed them outside the community”. The victims had previously been beaten by the city’s merchants.
Traders, for their part, categorically deny this claim. According to the local Merchants Federation, they called the police several times, tried to protect the lives of the two boys and prevent the unknown men from taking them with them.
