By Giselle Alzate | 2024-09-04

BOGOTÁ -- The Colombian Foreign Ministry has initiated diplomatic protocols to gather details about the arrest of two veterans by Venezuelan authorities in Caracas.

They are now in Russia, which is prosecuting them as mercenaries because they fought in Ukraine against Russian invaders sent in by President Vladimir Putin.

"The Colombian Foreign Ministry has sent diplomatic notes to both Moscow and Caracas seeking information on the case," El Tiempo reported August 30.

Colombian citizens José Medina and Alexander Ante arrived in Caracas on July 19 from Madrid, Spain, after having fought alongside the Ukrainian army.

"He (Medina) told me he was in Caracas, and after that, we lost contact. We did not know anything. We're extremely distressed and urgently ask the Colombian government for help with this difficult situation," Cielo Paz, Medina's wife, told Noticias Caracol.

Paz shared with the media her conversations with her husband from Caracas, along with the location posting he sent from the international airport in the Venezuelan capital.

The relatives stated that the veterans had planned the following route: Warsaw to Madrid, Madrid to Caracas, Caracas to Bogotá, and finally Bogotá to Cali.

However, El Tiempo reports that both men were detained in Caracas by Venezuelan police, and nothing had been known afterward about their whereabouts.

After missing for almost 40 days, they resurfaced on August 28 in Moscow, where a court confirmed its detention of them.

"The Lefortovsky Court ruling satisfied the request of preliminary investigation bodies for (the) arrest of Ante Alexander and Medin(a) Arand(a) Jose Aron, suspected of [mercenarism] until October 22," the court press office said on August 28, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

15 years in prison possible

Ante and Medina face up to 15 years in prison.

The two veterans are accused of fighting in the Ukrainian army against Moscow's forces, said TASS.

Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, labels foreign volunteers fighting in the Ukrainian army as "mercenaries."

Mercenary activity is harshly penalized under the Russian criminal code, even though the Kremlin uses several paramilitary groups, with Wagner being the best known.

Russian media aired images of the two veterans under interrogation.

Coverage of the Ante and Medina case prompted the Colombian Ministry of Defense to introduce a bill aimed at preventing the recruitment of Colombian mercenaries abroad.

"Colombian military personnel, renowned globally for their expertise, have fallen victim to such crimes, being recruited in various regions to engage in illegal activities," the ministry said in a statement September 1.

If approved, the law aims to align Colombia with the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries.

This convention against mercenary recruitment is a 2001 United Nations treaty.

It came into force in October 2001 and has been ratified by 46 countries.