“The weapon of the enemy is not the gun, but money”, because “money can deprive the state of power on the territory”.
With these words, President Gustavo Petro supported the security policy at the meeting with the Admirals and Generals of the Armed Forces at the José María Córdova Military Cadet School, where he made clear what strategies should be implemented in the current situation and the threats that exist in the country .
In an academic setting, the head of state traveled through the different phases of the violence in Colombia, recalling that there has not been a day of peace for 72 years, but that threats grow “like the layers of an onion” but they are “deep inside” the foundations and roots that have produced the current situation in the country are growing.
He recalled that violence changes over time and assured that ideology is already a thing of the past and does not exist. Today, the power of money and territorial control are dominant.
As if describing a photograph of current reality, President Petro said that when combatants die, “throw them around as if they were bricks, they don’t care about man, they are no longer your ideological fighters, your comrade who fell.” is.” .”
They are “an input that they bought with money, they were paid a salary, they died, they leave the next day, they come back with the money and replace them,” he said.
For this reason, he assured that these are “perpetual” illegal armies, which poses a problem for the state because “they can last for a long time because as long as there is a market that allows people to go to war hire, they can follow.” This market is represented by the absence of government, poverty and lack of opportunities for young people.
submission and negotiation
In his dialogue with the high-ranking officials, the head of state referred to the issue of peace, explaining that the Colombian regulations separate “the political negotiations typical of the second phase of the process, in which power is at stake”, from “the submission “ distinguishing justice, which is a legal negotiation between judges and criminals; It’s not about politics, it’s not about power.
For this reason he brought up the experience with the ELN, of which he said: “There is no ceasefire, they did not want it, there is a war on the territory, mainly between them and other groups, not with the state. “ .” .
“The ELN has changed, it’s not an insurgent group like before, it’s fighting areas for the illegal economy,” he noted.
In parallel, he referred to the Clan del Golfo, of which he assured that “they can say: ‘Yes, we accept a truce'”, he said, and how did he imagine the truce? That the state does not come to fight against us, it does not interfere in the territory here; Well, it’s cool because we keep doing what we’re doing and it’s a mess.”
However, he noted: “The experience with the Clan del Golfo showed us that as soon as we got the excavators and blew them up, the strike broke out, that is, we did not blow up the excavators.” What has us that shown? That the problem was the excavators there in that region.”
Faced with the demonstration that excavators are essential to illegal mining and society’s dependence on this illegal exercise, the President said he had ordered the troops to stay and take over the area.
But “there are difficulties: until the clan people that are out there start infiltrating the troops because they’re doing it for money, and they start weakening them.”
“It’s easy to counteract that, the troops are moving, flowing, they have to flow. If the troops leave they cannot stay long, prevention is essential.”
He also referred to the problem of coca and drug trafficking. And he recalled that “the strategy of fumigation failed,” for which he asked: “How did we manage to complicate illegal business? With intelligence information”, which leads to the arrest of illegal businessmen and the confiscation of the goods.
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