The arrival at the Ministry of Defense of ex-magistrate Iván Velásquez is the unequivocal sign that the president-elect, Gustavo Petro, will fulfill his campaign promise to carry out a purge of the military leadership, of which he will be the commander-in-chief from August 7th.
For the active military high command, the appointment of Velásquez Gómez in that portfolio triggered a general discontent in the leadership, who transferred that discontent to the troops and that, according to military sources, “this appointment fell on them like a bucket of cold water.”
Military sources say that prevention with Velásquez as the new Ministry of Defense is related to the call to qualify services “of the military who have active investigations and who would be forced to step aside for the arrival of the leadership that Petro wants to form.” .
That will be the main task of the incoming Ministry of Defense, to form a leadership without “stains on military honor”, which is why some names that were initially considered to be part of the high command of the Public Force, were rejected to lead the Forces. Military and Police.
So much so, that on July 19, one day before the resignation of General (r) Eduardo Zapateiro, former commander of the Army, EL COLOMBIANO learned that General Helder Fernan Giraldo Bonilla, a officer with 38 years of service and who has no administrative, disciplinary, or criminal investigations.
“That is one of the resumes that they are investigating to find out if he continues in the Petro government, because he has no investigation,” they said from the Army.
those who would leave
Among the pro-peace military leadership that the incoming government wants to align, the name of a high command sounded: General Mauricio Moreno, current commander of the Personal Command; however, his continuity was left in suspensive points because he is one of the current officers who has open investigations. One of them (the most notorious) is due to the alleged diversion of the budget for gasoline when he was commander of the Joint Task Force Titan, in Chocó.
Another of those discarded would be the person in charge of investigating the acts of corruption within the Army: the current Inspector of the institution, General Juan Pablo Forero Tascón, whom the JEP called to render a voluntary version for accusations that link him to extrajudicial executions that occurred between 2004 and 2005 in Antioquia, when he served as commander of the Atanasio Girardot Battalion.
In the decantation of the dome, another of the military high command that would not be in the deck would be General Jorge Isaacs Hoyos. In the high military spheres, the dismissal of the officer caused surprise because he is the current commander of the Army’s Joint Special Operations Command (CCOES), one of the links in the race to command the Army. Isaacs Hoyos was ruled out by the investigations into the death of two minors in April 2020 in an operation when he was commander of the Army’s Third Division, in Cauca.
In the ranks of the Army there is already talk of the romp. There is uncertainty for a leadership that they say will change with the arrival of the Petro government
The arrival at the Ministry of Defense of ex-magistrate Iván Velásquez is the unequivocal sign that the president-elect, Gustavo Petro, will fulfill his campaign promise to carry out a purge of the military leadership, of which he will be the commander-in-chief from August 7th.
For the active military high command, the appointment of Velásquez Gómez in that portfolio triggered a general discontent in the leadership, who transferred that discontent to the troops and that, according to military sources, “this appointment fell on them like a bucket of cold water.”
Military sources say that prevention with Velásquez as the new Ministry of Defense is related to the call to qualify services “of the military who have active investigations and who would be forced to step aside for the arrival of the leadership that Petro wants to form.” .
That will be the main task of the incoming Ministry of Defense, to form a leadership without “stains on military honor”, which is why some names that were initially considered to be part of the high command of the Public Force, were rejected to lead the Forces. Military and Police.
So much so, that on July 19, one day before the resignation of General (r) Eduardo Zapateiro, former commander of the Army, EL COLOMBIANO learned that General Helder Fernan Giraldo Bonilla, a officer with 38 years of service and who has no administrative, disciplinary, or criminal investigations.
“That is one of the resumes that they are investigating to find out if he continues in the Petro government, because he has no investigation,” they said from the Army.
those who would leave
Among the pro-peace military leadership that the incoming government wants to align, the name of a high command sounded: General Mauricio Moreno, current commander of the Personal Command; however, his continuity was left in suspensive points because he is one of the current officers who has open investigations. One of them (the most notorious) is due to the alleged diversion of the budget for gasoline when he was commander of the Joint Task Force Titan, in Chocó.
Another of those discarded would be the person in charge of investigating the acts of corruption within the Army: the current Inspector of the institution, General Juan Pablo Forero Tascón, whom the JEP called to render a voluntary version for accusations that link him to extrajudicial executions that occurred between 2004 and 2005 in Antioquia, when he served as commander of the Atanasio Girardot Battalion.
In the decantation of the dome, another of the military high command that would not be in the deck would be General Jorge Isaacs Hoyos. In the high military spheres, the dismissal of the officer caused surprise because he is the current commander of the Army’s Joint Special Operations Command (CCOES), one of the links in the race to command the Army. Isaacs Hoyos was ruled out by investigations into the death of two minors in April 2020 in an operation when he was commander of the Army’s Third Division, in Cauca.
In the ranks of the Army there is already talk of the romp. There is uncertainty for a leadership that they say will change with the arrival of the Petro government
