Spain Arrests Former FARC Member ‘The Nurse’ Accused Of Performing More Than 500 Forced Abortions

Spain Arrests Former FARC Member
Spain's National Police arrested Hector "The Nurse" Arboleda Albeidis Buitrago, a man accused of performing possibly hundreds of forced abortions on female fighters of Colombia's FARC rebel group. Photo courtesy of Spain's National Police/Ministry of Interior

MADRID, Dec. 14 (UPI) — Spain’s National Police arrested Hector “The Nurse” Arboleda Albeidis Buitrago, a man accused of performing possibly hundreds of forced abortions on female fighters of Colombia’s FARC rebel group.

Albeidis Buitrago was working as a nurse in Madrid before his arrest on Sunday, the National Police said. Colombia is seeking his extradition.

“This man would have been responsible for the execution of more than 500 forced abortions by guerrillas who had been raped by members of the organization,” the National Police said in a statement. “Among these women were 50 girls of the Choco Zabaleta indigenous community, who were found to be forcibly recruited.”

The FARC hierarchy is accused of disseminating a decree that said it would punish guerrilla members who refused to have or participate in abortions.

On Friday, Colombia said it was investigating at least 150 cases of former female FARC fighters who said they were forced to terminate their pregnancies. Many of the women said they were raped, BBC News reported.

Albeidis Buitrago is accused of participating in most of those cases. At least 50 underage girls were victims of the forced abortions, sometimes at seven or eight months of pregnancy. The abortions were carried out between 1998 and 2000.

“We have evidence to prove that forced abortion was a policy of the FARC that was based on forcing a female fighter to abort so as not to lose her as an instrument of war,” Colombian Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre said on Friday.

More than 220,000 people have died and 5 million have been internally displaced due to the Colombian conflict since the FARC’s founding in 1964. The militant rebel group has been involved in drug-trafficking, kidnapping and other illicit activity to fund its insurgency campaign.

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