2 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Teen assassins plague Colombia decades after Escobar hired kids to kill
Decades after drug lord Pablo Escobar notoriously built a small army of child hitmen to murder police officers, judges and politicians, Colombia is still plagued by the scourge of teenage assassins.
Last week, a 15-year-old was arrested for allegedly shooting presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe at a rally in Bogotá in scenes reminiscent of the bad old days of assassinations, kidnappings and bombings in the violence-weary South American nation.
The government believes the boy was a hired gun but has yet to determine who ordered the hit on the 39-year-old senator, whose condition remains critical.
The youngster has offered to 'collaborate' with authorities and claimed to have received his orders from a person in the 'olla', as drug-dealing neighbourhoods are known.
Senator Miguel Uribe was shot and wounded in Bogotá on June 7. Photo: AFP
The use of children to commit such acts 'is not something exceptional for Colombia,' Matthew Charles, director of the Mi Historia foundation for vulnerable youth, said.
