The last time we had any information about Colombian soldiers José Arón Medina Aranda and Alexander Ante was when they landed in Caracas from Madrid on July 18. They were making a stopover before returning to Colombia after fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian army against Russia. This Friday, almost a month and a half after their disappearance, news of them arrived: they are detained in Moscow, accused of being mercenaries. The Venezuelan authorities, who were asked for information about the detainees shortly after their disappearance, have not given any explanation. The governments of Russia and Venezuela are close allies, and President Vladimir Putin is one of the few leaders who has recognized the reelection of Nicolás Maduro after the elections of July 28, whose legitimacy has been questioned by a large part of the international community.
According to The New York TimesThe two soldiers, originally from the Cauca department, fought in the Ukrainian ranks for between 8 and 10 months. Their return trip began on July 18 in Warsaw (Poland). The destination of that first trip was Madrid, from where Medina sent a video to his wife in which he is seen in military uniform, getting ready to board the flight for the second trip, which would take him to Caracas. Hours later, he shared his geolocation from the airport in the Venezuelan capital. Then his family lost all contact with him. The flight to Bogotá was scheduled for the afternoon of July 19. Last Thursday, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of both.
Following the disappearance, the soldiers’ relatives turned to the Colombian Foreign Ministry for help. On July 25, the Colombian embassy in Caracas sent a letter to the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it asked if Medina and Ante had been detained by any authority in that country. According to the embassy, the soldiers’ relatives had informed them that they had landed at Simón Bolívar Airport in Maiquetía on July 18 on a Plus Ultra airline plane from Madrid. “In case Mr. Medina Miranda [sic] and Before they are in the custody of any Venezuelan authority, the Embassy requests the kind letters of the Honorable Ministry in order to authorize their corresponding consular visit,” the document added. The letter received a response on August 5, without further information: “In this regard, this letter serves to inform this Diplomatic Mission that its request has been forwarded to the competent national authority, whose results will be reported.”
On August 15, the Colombian Foreign Ministry responded to a request from House Representative José Jaime Uscátegui, confirming that it was awaiting a response from the Venezuelan authorities. There was no news in the following 15 days. Until this Friday, when the videos in which the detainees in Moscow are seen were released. According to the report, The New York TimesThe family of the Colombian soldiers has confirmed that the people who appear in the recordings are them.
Uscátegui, a pro-Uribe politician and son of a retired general, posted on his social media the video in which Medina and Ante are seen in the custody of Russian soldiers. They speak to the camera, give their names and information about the Ukrainian battalion in which they fought. The recording also shows documents of the soldiers, such as their citizenship card, military booklet, driver’s license and bank card. In the post, the congressman, who is opposed to the Government of Gustavo Petro, calls out the Colombian Foreign Ministry for, according to him, not doing something “for the rights of these two compatriots.”
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The two Colombian soldiers, whose disappearance in Caracas (Venezuela) we had reported since July 18, now appear in a Russian prison. @CancilleriaCol must answer why it has not done something for the rights of these two compatriots. pic.twitter.com/fXGmJvNXBR
— Jose Jaime Uscátegui (@jjUscategui) August 30, 2024
The Ukrainian ranks are thinned by the harshness of the war, and they welcome combatants from other countries without hesitation. Among them are Colombian soldiers, hardened in one of the longest armed conflicts in the world. This is a wave of Colombians that, over time and especially since 2023, has been facilitated by more flexible rules for receiving them. Many are veterans, pensioners or retired from the army who worked in one way or another in the security field, as explained in a recent interview with this newspaper by Colombian journalist Catalina Gómez Ángel, who has been deployed for long periods in Ukraine.
Following an explicit invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last February, information has been circulating in WhatsApp groups of former military personnel. The messages include some from agencies that take soldiers to other wars such as Iraq, Yemen or Afghanistan, but also videos that are almost like tutorials. “At the moment, there are a lot of them arriving. But we will see what happens, because many are also resigning, they are realising that the battle fronts are tougher than before,” Gómez Ángel pointed out last July.
Colombian government ambiguous in face of Russian invasion
The Colombian government has been ambiguous regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. President Petro usually avoids criticizing Putin and refers in general to a “peace agreement” between two countries, without considering that one is the aggressor and the other the victim. However, there is a notable exception: a year ago, the president accused Moscow of violating war protocols by attacking defenseless Colombian civilians. He did so after the attack on a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk where former Peace Commissioner Sergio Jaramillo, writer Héctor Abad Faciolince and the aforementioned Gómez Ángel were present, along with Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died from the impact of a Russian missile. The others escaped unharmed or with minor injuries.
Last June, the Colombian president even cancelled his participation in the Summit for Peace in Ukraine, which was being held in Switzerland, at the last minute. Visiting Europe, Petro planned to meet President Zelensky there, but he announced unexpectedly that he preferred to return to Bogotá because, he said, the conference was aligned with the war and its conclusions were predetermined. “Most of Latin America and the Colombian government do not agree with extending the war. We do not subscribe to political blocs,” he insisted on his X account, his favorite communication channel.
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