Colombia upholds dismissal of nine officers for torturing trainees BOGOTA, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Colombia's government has upheld the dismissal of nine officers for torturing soldiers during a 2006 training program, the prosecutor general's office said. All nine officers belonged to the "Patriotas" battalion and were responsible for designing a program that replicated what soldiers would undergo if captured by guerrillas, Colombia Reports said. "Under this condition of helplessness they were verbally attacked and intimidated, beaten hard, repeatedly force-fed salt, sand, urine or other elements," the prosecutor general's office said. Some of the 21 soldiers taking part in the counter-guerrilla training program received burns on their bodies during the one-day exercise while others were forced to eat animal feces and subjected to sexual attacks. "They were also submerged in mud puddles with manure or water to provoke symptoms of drowning then they had ants put in their ears," the prosecutor general's report said.