Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday appointed a new military command with a clear objective: “substantially increase respect for human rights and public freedoms“. In a context of a spike in violence since the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, the new command’s priorities will be “reducing violence, crime“, declared the president during a press conference.
With the appointment of new commanders, his government hastened the departure of some thirty army and police generals. “In this process, there are always degrees of injustice, I’m not going to say that these are perfect decisions“, he admitted, when asked about the subject. 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 decried for its disproportionate use of force during demonstrations or against armed groups from the country.
“We are facing a change, a change of mentalities, the government has changed, the strategies are changing“, still expressed the ex-guerrilla.