Corporal Pardo Oliveros sent a letter to the General Command of the Military Forces denouncing the harassment of which he was a victim.
Photo: EFE – Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda
Corporal Francisco José Pardo Olivero, 23 years old, was found dead last Wednesday, June 19, after shooting himself with his weapon inside the Army Communications Support and Services Battalion, based in Facatativá (Cundinamarca). The main reason would have been the alleged harassment of which he was a victim by his superior.
This was made known by Corporal Pardo Oliveros through a letter sent on March 23 to the General Command of the Military Forces, in which he described the details of the possible harassment and bullying he suffered within the Battalion.
In his complaint, the corporal claims to have been a victim of pressure, harassment and even discrimination by Major Andrés Felipe López Ayala. Being a native of Santa Marta (Magdalena), Pardo would have received hostile comments because of his origin, as he details in the letter.
“In the service initiation training, the aforementioned officer, in front of my subordinates, began to harass me, telling me ‘what’s wrong, you’re not asking for leave, what are you waiting for if you gave me the word’ and that is one of the situations that I live facing daily, as well as the hatred he has for the people of the Caribbean region, since he does not understand cultural inclusion,” he wrote.
In another section of the letter, the corporal noted: “Likewise, he began a campaign to discredit me by opening three investigations in a space of no less than a year, in order to end my military career in the probationary period.” According to Pardo Oliveros, he managed to demonstrate that the accusations for which investigations were opened against him were not true.
“I have always acted under the institutional commitment, but not happy with the same, I open a third investigation due to the presumed events on February 4, 2024, the communication and opening arrived on the day,” the letter concludes.
A few days later, Corporal Pardo Oliveros took his own life, events that are now the subject of investigation by the Military Forces.
To learn more about justice, security and human rights, visit the Judicial section of The viewer.
