Bogota - Saba:
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the phenomenon of sending Colombian mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, describing it as "a method of stealing the state."
Petro said in a post on his X account on Friday: "Mercenary work is a method of plundering the state. Public funds invested in training personnel to defend Colombia are now being used in deadly armed conflicts that the Colombian people do not want to participate in."
The Colombian president called for "the protection of the lives of young Colombians, whose lives are being exploited by private security companies linked to criminal circles."
Petro's statements came in response to revelations made by the Russian ambassador to Bogotá, Nikolai Tavdomadze, in an interview with Sputnik. Tavdomadze indicated that "the number of Colombians heading to Ukraine as mercenaries remains high," asserting that "Kyiv is recruiting them through its diplomatic missions, in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."
The Colombian ambassador to Moscow, Hector Isidro Arenas Neyra, had previously told Sputnik that the Colombian government did not have accurate data on the number of citizens participating in the conflict in Ukraine.
Last March, the families of Colombian mercenaries held a protest in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bogotá, demanding information from the government about the fate of their sons.
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