The former auxiliary magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, Iván Velásquez Gómez, will become the next Minister of Defense of Colombia. He is the eighth appointment of President-elect Gustavo Petro’s cabinet and a figure that arouses hatred and love depending on who is asked. With his landing in the Government, there will surely be a romp in the generalship.
This is due not only to the fact that the government that will be installed on August 7 is diametrically opposed to the one that is leaving, but also to the conditions that Petro will impose on the members of the military leadership. For example, he said that “nobody who is involved in the violation of human rights should be left at the top.”
In this sense, it is probable that Velásquez will come to shake the defense portfolio and the high hierarchies of the Colombian Public Force. This would directly affect high-ranking officials questioned for their handling of human rights in official institutions.
The question remains as to whether this means that there might be what is known as a “purge” as of August 7. That is to say, if there will be an abrupt change of generals of the forces or if it will be a gradual transition, as usually happens with changes of government.
Colonel (R) John Marulanda, president of the Association of Retired Officers of the Colombian Military Forces (Acore), assured that there is a climate of “uncertainty” with the appointment of Velásquez.
“There is no certainty regarding what he is going to do with the military in active service,” Marulanda assured and warned that they are also awaiting what he may decide on the future of the retired military.
This mistrust, moreover, has been cultivated by Velásquez himself. Upon his appointment, he was reminded of several trills he had done in the past.
“And no demand to withdraw the vigilante forces that we have all seen firing at protesters? Not even for the police to say where they have the disappeared persons of whose arrests there is evidence?” Velásquez wrote in the context of the National Strike protests last year.
Despite everything, Marulanda pointed out that it might be “an important asset within the assets of corruption, especially in the high command.” This, he pointed out, is due to his extensive resume as an investigator of corruption cases.
Judge and persona non grata
Velásquez is a native of Medellín, a lawyer from the University of Antioquia and has extensive experience in the fight once morest corruption and investigation of links between armed groups and politicians, not only in Colombia, but also in Guatemala.
At the end of the 1990s, he was in charge of the Medellín Regional Prosecutor’s Office and investigated how paramilitary structures laundered money in the departments of Córdoba and Antioquia.
He arrived at the Supreme Court of Justice with the new millennium, in the year 2000. Starting in 2006, he investigated the links between paramilitaries and well-known politicians. He was one of the researchers who unraveled the fabric of parapolitics in Congress.
From there, a closeness was forged with Petro, who also became visible in those years for denouncing the tentacles of paramilitarism in the Legislative.
Both were shot by the late DAS. In fact, the current Minister of Defense, Diego Molano, had to apologize to Velásquez – who will become his successor – on behalf of the Colombian State for the illegal interceptions of which he was a victim.
The curious anecdote occurred in October 2020, when Molano was director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre) and justice forced the State to admit his guilt in the wiretapping.
Velásquez was also part of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, an organization that stepped on several calluses for Guatemalan politicians.
His investigations earned him a request for expulsion from that country and the declaration of persona non grata by the government of President Jimmy Morales, which also took away the possibility of entering Guatemala in 2018.
defense and peace
The most urgent work that Velásquez will have as of August 7 has to do with creating a climate of consensus and cooperation between the Public Force and the first leftist government in recent times.
Petro himself has shown that this issue causes him concern. In an interview with Cambio Magazine, he pointed out that he has already asked international figures for advice on how to build trust within the Armed Forces. This was asked, for example, by former Spanish President Felipe González, who belonged to a center-left party and came to power following the Franco dictatorship in Spain.
Even so, for Jairo Libreros, professor of National Security and Defense at the Externado de Colombia University, Petro’s appointment was a success. “For Gustavo Petro, the most important minister in his portfolio is Defense,” said Libreros. “In emotional terms, Petro knows that the main challenge he faces under his administration is to guarantee the subordination of the Public Force to the Casa de Nariño,” said the analyst.
As he pointed out, with Velásquez, Petro will have control of the Military Forces to guarantee “the fight once morest internal corruption” and that the uniformed officers are part of the peacebuilding agenda that he hopes to forge throughout his Government.
In front of him, he also has other longer-term tasks. Among others, carry out the reform of the Police.
Reactions in the opposition
Once Velásquez’s appointment became known, several leaders of the opposition to the next government came out to criticize him. “Well, it will be that ‘the habit makes the monk!’”, wrote former president Álvaro Uribe on his Twitter account, referring to Velásquez, one of the staunchest detractors he has had within the judiciary.
Velásquez has vehemently criticized him and has questioned his role in the interceptions and persecution of which he was a victim following investigating parapolitics.
For his part, Uribe has described Velásquez as being an “affiliate of the extreme left.” He has accused him of “corrupting Colombian justice” and even in 2017 he assured that he “should be imprisoned.”
In turn, supporters of former President Uribe rejected Velásquez’s appointment. Perhaps one of the strongest comments was made by Senator from the Democratic Center Paloma Valencia.
“The appointment of a sworn enemy of the party and the head of the opposition party as Defense Minister is not just a challenge; it is a threat”, assured Valencia.
