The figure is up by more than 30% compared to 2021. President Gustavo Petro who took office on August 7 has promised total peace. But the violence does not give way. Saturday evening, the new heads of the armies, land, air and navy, were sworn in before the first left-wing president in the country’s history, elected last June.
Carlos Rincon was what is called here a social leader, explains our correspondent in Bogota, Marie-Eve Detoeuf. He lived in Puerto Wilches, a small river port 400 kilometers north of Bogota. The authorities knew that Carlos Rincon was very threatened. The so-called Personal Protection Department had considered sending him a bulletproof vest and a bodyguard. Too late. Carlos was murdered on Friday.
In Puerto Wilches, as in many parts of the country, mafias, guerrillas and paramilitaries are vying for control of territory and population. All these armed groups that live off drug trafficking occasionally act with the complicity of the army and the police. Since the investiture of Gustavo Petro, seven social leaders have been assassinated.
The new president knows that there is urgency. Several measures have been announced, which play the card of prevention. Police and military should now lose points and advancement if crimes are committed in their jurisdiction. This is a very new approach to security.
The army changes heads
And this new security policy began on August 12, five days after the enthronement of the new head of state. That day, Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in Colombia, replaced the entire military command, including the police, emphasizing that his mission would henceforth be ” the reduction of violence, crime, and a substantial increase in respect for human rights and public freedoms “.
In particular, he appointed General Helder Fernan Giraldo as Commander-in-Chief, and installed General Henry Armando Sanabria as head of the police, under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, and of which Gustavo Petro has already promised a “ profound transformation with its passage under a new supervisory ministry. With these appointments, the new power of the left precipitated the departure of around thirty generals from the army and the police, an unprecedented event and an earthquake at the head of this institution.
After years of violence fratricides in Colombia, the Colombian army aims to ” build peace » and to become « an army of peace “, Pleaded Saturday evening President Gustavo Petro, on the occasion of the official taking office of the new command of the army.
” What does this mean for the military? (…) It is not a question of replacing a general by another (…). The army must not only prepare for war, but must also prepare for peace, end up as an army of peace “, underlined the 62-year-old president, a former member of a far-left urban guerrilla in the 1980s and which the Colombian army had then fought hard.
After six decades of conflict against the FARC guerrillas (disarmed with the 2016 peace agreement), still fighting against the multiple armed groups operating in the country’s provinces (and in particular the FARC dissidents and the Guevarist guerrillas of ELN), the army continues to enjoy broad popular support.
But scandals have tarnished his reputation: alliances with bloodthirsty paramilitaries, cases of complicity with the Clan del Golfo (the largest drug gang in the country) or the execution of more than 6,000 civilians falsely presented as guerrillas killed in action between 2002 and 2008.
After six decades of conflict against the FARC guerrillas (disarmed with the 2016 peace agreement), still fighting against the multiple armed groups operating in the country’s provinces (and in particular the FARC dissidents and the Guevarist guerrillas of ELN), the army continues to enjoy broad popular support.
But scandals have tarnished his reputation: alliances with bloodthirsty paramilitaries, cases of complicity with the Clan del Golfo (the largest drug gang in the country) or the execution of more than 6,000 civilians falsely presented as guerrillas killed in action between 2002 and 2008.
Arrest warrants against ELN negotiators suspended
The Colombian president also announced on Saturday the suspension of the arrest and extradition warrants issued against the negotiators of the ELN guerrillas, currently in Cuba to try to relaunch the peace process. ” I authorized (…) the suspension of the arrest warrants against these negotiators, the suspension of the extradition orders (…) so that the dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN) can begin “, declared Mr. Petro after a security council in San Pablo (north).
The Colombian president said he was confident that the future peace process with the last rebel organization in Colombia would be ” fast and expeditious “.
The ELN delegation to Cuba, which had a first meeting last week with government officials, is made up of ten people and headed by one of its commanders, Pablo Beltrán. The United States has requested the extradition of 11 rebels, accused of drug trafficking, but none are part of the delegation.
After the signing of a historic peace agreement with the ex-guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, Marxists) in 2016, negotiations were started with the ELN the following year under the presidency of the Nobel laureate of Peace Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), first in Quito and then in Havana.
But they were interrupted by his successor, the conservative Ivan Duque, after an attack on the police academy in Bogota, during which 22 cadets, in addition to the aggressor, were killed in January 2019.
According to the authorities, the ELN currently has some 2,500 members, compared to around 1,800 at the time of the negotiations. It is mainly present in the Pacific region and on the border with Venezuela.
(With AFP)