Retired Army Major Marco Binicio Pirajón has broken his silence about the death of his son, Captain Marco David Pirajón Montezuma, one of three soldiers killed last Friday night in a drone attack on a military battalion in Ocaña, a town in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department near the Venezuelan border—a region long plagued by armed groups and drug-trafficking violence.
The elder Pirajón, who spent two decades in uniform, recounted receiving the devastating news: as a niece called asking about reports of an attack on the battalion, a military psychologist was already phoning his wife, who ran into the room screaming that their son had been killed.
According to his father, the younger Pirajón briefly studied chemical engineering in Bogotá before trying to follow an uncle into the national police force. He was turned down after admitting in an interview that he didn’t read books. He then asked his father to help him join the Army instead, eventually training as a helicopter co-pilot and preparing to specialize on Black Hawk aircraft this coming December. At the time of his death, he commanded a rapid-response motorized unit of 36 soldiers on motorcycles, carrying out raids and arrests in the area. A regional brigade commander had praised him as an outstanding, fearless officer—qualities his father believes made him a target. Captain Pirajón was buried Sunday afternoon in his hometown of Sogamoso.
Read the full interview with his father at El Tiempo.
Source: Así era la vida de Marco David Pirajón, capitán asesinado en Ocaña: su padre rompió el silencio sobre su muerte (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: jirka.sodomka, BY-ND 2.0 (via Openverse).