Internal conflict has recently escalated in the southwest of the country as members of the FARC, the main rebel group, refuse to lay down their arms. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images
According to President Gustavo Petro, the Colombian military lost a huge amount of ammunition, including millions of bullets, thousands of grenades and 37 anti-tank missiles.
Mr. Petro blamed the problem on corruption, accusing unnamed officers and civilians of selling off the missing arsenal to arms dealers, organized crime, armed rebels and even the gangs now wreaking havoc in Haiti.
He spoke at Tuesday. after unannounced inspections at two military bases, Tolemaida and La Guajira, revealed staggering shortages for the first time.
“The only way to explain this type of shortage is that there have been networks of people in the armed forces and civilians engaged in mass commercialization of weapons using legal weapons from the Colombian state,” he said.
“We must, without a doubt, completely separate the armed forces, like any branch of government, from any manifestations of corruption. This is the only way to guarantee the safety of our citizens and the armed forces themselves.”
President Gustavo Petro said this on Tuesday after unannounced inspections at two military bases. Photo: Natalia Angarita/Reuters
Defense Minister Iván Velázquez added that a full investigation is underway and those responsible will be brought to justice.
Backed by US military assistance, the Colombian armed forces are among the most heavily armed in South America. The country is both the world's largest producer of coca, a key ingredient in cocaine, and the scene of violent internal conflict between various Marxist rebel groups and security forces.
The conflict, which spanned nearly five decades, has claimed an estimated 450,000 lives and displaced millions of civilians, mostly from poor rural areas.
The violence has subsided thanks to contentious peace deals reached in 2016 by then-President Juan Manuel Santos with the main FARC rebel group. But it has recently intensified again in the southwest of the country, near the lawless borders with Ecuador and Peru, as dissident members of the FARC refuse to lay down their arms.
Throughout the conflict, members of the Colombian armed forces have often been accused of human rights abuses by the force. and corruption. Santos' predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, faces trial on charges of tampering with witnesses for allegedly concealing his ties to far-right paramilitary groups that also fought the FARC.
About one million bullets and 10,000 pomegranate. went missing from Tolemaida. More than four million bullets, 9,300 grenades, 550 rocket-propelled grenades, 37 Nimrod rockets and two Spike rockets were missing from La Guajira.
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