All-out battle within the Colombian army. Since his inauguration on August 7, President Gustavo Petro has multiplied announcements and decisions in matters of security and defence. For the new Head of State, who demands respect for human rights, “Security is measured in lives saved and not in the number of deaths” ; “the army must become an army of peace”.
In a country that has experienced a long armed conflict – before the signing of the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – reforming the military institution is ambitious. Armed groups linked to drug trafficking still operate throughout the country. “The change in doctrine wanted by Gustavo Petro is consistent with his promise of total peace. But the means to implement it still remain unclear,” summarizes the researcher Andrés Macias of the Externado University. The concern is all the more acute within the army as Mr. Petro, 62, the first left-wing president of the country was a member, in his youth, of an urban far-left guerrilla.
Some fifty army and police generals have already been dismissed. Some were involved in investigations for corruption or human rights violations opened by ordinary justice or by the Court for Peace (JEP) which investigates crimes committed during the conflict. Set up by agreement with the FARC guerrillas, the JEP investigates in particular the “false positives”these some 6,000 assassinations of civilians committed between 2002 and 2008 by soldiers who, eager to inflate their results, presented them as guerrillas who died in combat.
Other generals have simply been replaced by colleagues with less seniority or officers of lower rank: they must therefore join the active reserve. “All presidents reshuffle the high command when they take office,” recalls retired Colonel John Marulanda, President of the Reserve Officers Association, pointing out “that none of the suspended generals openly challenged the decision of the elected president”. But, observers agree: “The magnitude of the sweep is unprecedented. »
“Degrees of injustice”
Asked about these massive departures, Gustavo Petro admitted that “in this process there are always degrees of injustice, I’m not going to say that these are perfect decisions”. For Javier Rincon, director of the Observatory of Military Law at Javeriana University, the withdrawal of generals is a blow to the operational capacity and morale of the armed forces. “It takes twenty-five years of service to make a general”, he recalls. Colonel Marulanda is more confident: “The soldiers promoted to new responsibilities all have experience in their field and they will do what they have always done: learn. “A change in military doctrine does not happen overnight. You have to take the time to adjust protocols and operating manuals, to change mentalities”recalls, for his part, the analyst Isaac Morales of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation.
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