Colombia's military campaign in the southern department of Guaviare faces a new judicial restriction after teenagers were identified among the victims of recent attacks on rebel positions. A court has imposed a temporary limit on bombing missions when available information suggests children or adolescents may be inside a targeted camp.
The measure was issued on September 3 and applies while a broader legal challenge proceeds. According to an AFP report carried by France 24, the order followed military strikes that caused dozens of deaths, including at least three people aged 15 or 16. It does not halt every operation against armed groups in the region, but it requires authorities to pause the use of air power in the specific circumstances covered by the ruling.
The controversy centers on two recent attacks against a dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla organization. Those strikes killed at least 33 members of the group, AFP reported. Colombia's forensic authority later determined that minors were among the dead, turning the operation into a test of how the state should respond when armed organizations recruit children into their ranks.
President Abelardo de la Espriella took office last month promising a tougher approach to Colombia's armed groups. His administration has defended the legality of its operations and describes the targeted organizations as narco-terrorist groups. The court's intervention now places a legal boundary around part of that strategy without resolving the wider dispute over the government's security policy.
Child recruitment is a persistent concern in Colombia's long-running conflicts. The national ombudsman recorded 428 cases involving recruitment by armed groups last year, while Human Rights Watch has warned that some children are treated as expendable fighters. Rights advocates argue that a recruited minor remains entitled to state protection even when present at an armed camp.
Roxemhberg Rozo, the political scientist and law student who brought the case, argued that bombing cannot be the state's answer to the recruitment of children. The judicial order reflects that concern by requiring the military to account for warnings about minors before choosing an aerial attack. Its temporary nature means the underlying legal questions are still being considered.
The government's public presentation of the campaign has also attracted criticism. De la Espriella expressed strong support for the strikes, and authorities released footage showing him near bodies covered in shrouds. Some Colombians described the imagery as callous, adding a political argument over tone and accountability to the legal dispute about targeting.
The case leaves the administration balancing two obligations: confronting groups involved in violence and drug trafficking, and protecting children recruited by those same groups. The court has not ended the offensive, but it has made the presence of minors a factor that can stop a bombing mission. Future proceedings will determine whether that restriction remains and how broadly it applies.
