Colombia: President Gustavo Petro cleans up the army staff
Colombian soldiers on parade during the inauguration ceremony of President Gustavo Petro on August 7, 2022 in Bogota.
REUTERS - LUISA GONZALEZ
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Colombian President Gustavo Petro appointed a new military command on Friday August 12 with the objective of “
substantially increasing respect for human rights and public freedoms
”.
Advertising
Read more
It is a waltz of the highest ranks which leads to a cascade of movements within the security forces.
According to a rule of the institution, an officer has the authority conferred on him by his seniority.
In other words, the commander-in-chief must be the person with the most seniority.
Therefore, with the appointment of a new staff, all subordinates who had equal or greater seniority must resign.
With the appointment of this new general staff, the new power hastened the departure of twenty generals from the police and ten from the army.
At the head of the police, General Henry Armando Sanabria succeeds General Jorge Luis Vargas.
Yackeline Navarro Ordóñez
becomes his number two.
She joined the police force in the early 1990s, which explains the large number of departures from the police force, according to observers.
Asked about these massive departures, Gustavo Petro acknowledged that "
in this process there are always degrees of injustice, I'm not going to say that these are perfect decisions
".
The new Armed Forces staff will be commanded by Major-General Helder Fernán Giraldo, 55, who was notably in charge of monitoring the border with Venezuela.
He succeeds General Luis Fernando Navarro.
Luis Mauricio Ospina succeeds Major General Carlos Iván Moreno Ojeda.
Vice-Admiral Francisco Hernando Cubides succeeds Admiral Gabriel Alfonso Pérez as head of the Navy and in the Air Force, Major-General Luis Carlos Córdoba succeeds General Pablo García.
Rethinking the missions of the security institution
The first left-wing president in the history of Colombia,
Gustavo Petro
, a 62-year-old ex-guerrilla, promised during his election campaign to reform the army, often criticized for its
disproportionate use of force during demonstrations
or against groups .
armed in the country.
Twenty-eight people had been killed by the police in 2021. The violence of the repression during this social movement had been such that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had
commissioned a mission
.
During his campaign, Gustavo Petro also accused some senior army officials of being linked to the
Clan del golfo
, the country's largest drug trafficking cartel.
The new command will have as priorities "
the reduction of violence, crime, and a substantial increase in respect for human rights and public freedoms
", declared Gustavo Petro during the press conference on Friday.
"
We are facing a change, a change of mentalities, the government has changed, the strategies are changing
", expressed the new Colombian president.
The track records of the new commanders of the armed forces show "
zero corruption, zero violations of fundamental rights, at least from the information we have obtained
", he added.
►
To read also
:
in Colombia, the construction sites awaiting Gustavo Petro
(and with agencies)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Colombia
Gustavo Petro
Defense