Colombia orders arrest of army colonel over 15 killings

A Colombian judge has ordered the arrest of an active duty army colonel for his alleged role in the 2007 extrajudicial killings of 15 civilians, prosecutors have said.
The executions allegedly were carried out by army staff overseen by Colonel Nelson Velazquez Parrado.
"The country's 40th local criminal court ... Has ordered the detention at the jail unit of Colonel Nelson Velazquez Parrado for the homicides of 15 people in Antioquia," a northern department, in 2007, the prosecutor's office said in a statement yesterday.
The colonel has been charged with manslaughter, as well as conspiracy, weapons charges and falsifying documents, it added.

Colombia has been in the throes of an armed conflict for half a century and hundreds of soldiers have been convicted of extrajudicial killings of civilians that were then presented as rebels killed in combat.
Currently, some 20 other generals are under investigation for similar alleged offenses, according to prosecutors.

More than 220,000 people have died in the Colombian conflict, which has involved drug traffickers and right-wing death squads, as well as government troops and leftist guerrillas.
Bogota and FARC rebels have been holding peace talks in the Cuban capital Havana for the past three years.
They have signed partial deals on several issues, but have yet to reach a definitive peace accord.

Both sides have vowed to reach a final agreement by the end of March.
Founded in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia currently comprises an estimated 7,000 fighters.