Six officers of the National Army were promoted from the rank of lieutenant colonel to colonel, six from frigate captain to naval captain, and three of the Navy infantry corps, from lieutenant colonel to colonel.
“Those who are not interested in peace, those who are not working for peace, will be defeated militarily. And regarding to everyone, interested or not interested in peace, the resources they get from criminal activities, will be taken away from them:” Minister Velásquez.
“You have a great responsibility. You reaffirm that commitment that in the same way implies a special relationship with the inhabitants, which leads us to differentiate those people who we have seen exploited by criminal organizations, from people who are members of the organizations, because the utilized inhabitants, the inhabitants who suffer the acts of those organizations, have to be protected, and we have to look precisely so that those people can live in freedom.”
The assertion was made by the Minister of National Defense, Iván Velásquez, at the parade field of the Military Cadet School, General José María Córdova, at the promotion ceremony of 15 senior officers of the Military Forces, whom he urged to exert control over the territory to provide security, and also work for sovereignty and coexistence.
“There are large areas of the country where illegal organizations operate, threaten communal action Boards, displace social leaderships, impose their own leaderships, and we can’t not allow that to continue (...). We have to recover the institution presence as a whole, with a Comprehensive Action, which is carried out by the Military Forces, and also by the Government, from its programs and its presence in the communities,” the Minister said.
In his speech to the newly promoted, the head of the Ministry of Defense said that a central aspect of the Security and Defense Policy of this Government is the dismantling of criminal structures, “a task in which you [the Military Forces] have a fundamental role.”
“This task of dismantling goes in two directions: on the one hand, in the operations in fulfillment of the constitutional duty that all the soldiers of the Homeland have, the constitutional duty to suppress all criminal manifestations, to strike by the force given by the Constitution of the Republic, and surrender all those who are not on the way of peace, who have no interest in peace,” Velásquez said.
In addition, the Minister described as “unacceptable” the existence of an illegal organization at the inauguration of social works in Tibú, Norte de Santander.
“A really very big responsibility, which even goes so far as to prevent such shameful, such serious acts, as the one we have just observed, through social networks in Tibú, about an illegal organization inaugurating works as if they were the government, it is an unacceptable presence. And the responsibility is yours. And it is in the responsibilities of the Military Forces that events of such nature do not occur again,” Minister Velásquez said.
At the same time, he stated that “this control of the territory will have to be rethought. It will be necessary to examine how the operation of the military Forces in the fulfillment of their constitutional duty prevents events like this from occurring again.”
Finally, the Minister congratulated the promoted personnel, “the Government of Change recognizes your work, your vocation and your discipline. You have faithfully fulfilled the requirements of your career, and that leads you to reach the last degree of higher officialdom, the last echelon prior to be generals of the Republic.”
Source: Defense Sector Communications Office - Ministry of National Defense
