FARC “nurse” sentenced to 40 years in prison for forced abortions

A judge sentenced Héctor Albeidis Arboleda Buitrago 40 years and nine months in prison, known under the alias “The Nurse “of the FARC, for performing forced abortions on an undetermined number of women who were part of that guerrilla and that of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

This was reported by the Prosecutor’s Office, which detailed in a statement that it managed to demonstrate that “The Nurse” committed “serious behaviors against human rights, by performing abortions on an undetermined number of women who were part of the ELN and the so-called Guevarista Revolutionary Army (ERG) “.

According to the Second Itinerant Specialized Court of Pereira, capital of the central department of Risaralda, “El Enfermero” is “responsible for the crimes of forced abortion in protected person and torture in protected person committed in homogeneous contest “.

“The abundant evidentiary material compiled by a prosecutor from the Specialized Directorate against Violations of Human Rights evidenced that Arboleda Buitrago committed a crime between 1997 and 2004, in the departments of Risaralda, Caldas, Antioquia, Chocó and Valle del Cauca “added the information.

Among 40 of its victims, who gave their testimony to the Prosecutor’s Office, there are minors, some of them from the Embera Chamí indigenous community and Afro-descendant groups.

“All the statements coincided in stating that: alias’The Nurse ‘was being sold to the highest bidder. He was acting as a ‘mercenary’ who indiscriminately interrupted pregnancies for the sole purpose of obtaining a profit, a profit from pain and putting the lives of women at serious risk, “the Prosecutor General’s office detailed.

On March 9, 2017, “The Nurse” lbequeathed to Colombia extradited from Spain as a consequence of the formalization of the request made by the Attorney General of the Nation before the Spanish Government on March 4, 2016.

Arboleda has a degenerative disease and left his country in 2005 to apply for asylum in Spain, which was denied, although years later he obtained Spanish nationality.

In 2015, he was detained in Madrid and was later released pending the extradition hearing, but, once the National Court agreed to his surrender, he was detained again to prevent his escape.