Colombia will exercise «all force» against the ELN, says its Minister of Defense

The new Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez, said in an interview with the AFP that he will respond with «all force» to the threats of the ELN guerrillas to undertake a «total war», although he recognizes a weakening of the public force despite the strengthening of the crime.

Just invested in the position on March 3, the general in retirement of the Air Force became the first military who assumes the headquarters of this portfolio since the 1991 Constitution.

Paradoxically, the leftist president Gustavo Petro, who in his youth belonged to a guerrillas, assigned the mission of recovering security when the country is going through the worst crisis of violence after the disarmament of the FARC guerrillas in 2017.

Sánchez (52 years old) hung the uniform to be a minister and find a burning country with two large spotlights:

The Catatumbo region on the border with Venezuela, where the National Liberation Army (ELN) murdered dozens of people in January, and the Micay Canyon (Southwest), a Cocalera area in which FARC dissidents and peasants who resist the entrance of the public force kidnapped this month at about thirty military and police.

Last week before the AFP cameras, the ELN warned of a «total war» in the country in the face of the «failure» of Petro’s peace policy.

That threat «responds with all the legitimate force of the State to defend Colombians, we are not a force of violence, we are a force of containment of violence,» he said.

«A total war of them is total terrorism, it is a total sicariate, it is all aberrations and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,» he added.

Famous for leading the rescue operation of four indigenous children lost for 40 days in the Amazon in 2023, the new minister is moved when he visualizes the country’s «paradise» that he wants to leave his little 10 -year -old son and recognizes that the effort to recover the territories will cost «tears.»

Here some fragments of the interview:

Question: What message did President Petro want to give his appointment?

Answer: «There is a vote of full trust in all military forces and the police», that «the security issue must be handled by someone who has experience (…) the country’s situation requires rapid actions.»

Q: Did the peace window for the ELN closed?

A: «Let’s review the story. When has this narcocriminal group shown will (peace)? In this government it opened maximum opportunity and responded by displacing 56,000 people, confining 23,000 and killing more than a hundred ». «It is a criminal group, it is a drug trafficker group, it is a cartel with a very harmful armed power for the population.»

Q: Did illegal armed groups grew during the total peace policy?

A: «Yes, they grew due to the betrayal they made to the National Government, to that authentic goodness, then they were overwhelmingly going there from drug trafficking, acquiring money (…) and with that money they were acquiring more criminal power, more armament.» «If one looks at approximately the last year (…) they are 1,500 more bandits,» mainly in the Gulf and Eln clan.

Q: How to enter territories such as the Micay Canyon, where communities expel them?

R. «It is a very complex problem, a ‘problem -problem’, it is a twisted problem, which has so many variables. (…) But it can be resolved, it requires work, it requires efforts, it requires effort, we will have a lot of sacrifice, we will even have tears, but in the end we will achieve it ».

Q: This government is less than half of the mandate …

A: «You know very well how much the United States lasted in Afghanistan and knows very well that this war lasted more than Vietnam lasted and knows very well that it failed (…) When are we going to have territorial control? As soon as possible ».

Q: Are you worrying a possible reactification of the United States as an allied country in the fight against drugs?

A: «If that descertification occurs, then we simply lose the ability to contain that threat (…) then not being able to contain it goes against the interests of the United States because more cocaine would arrive and it would not be stronger, it would not be more prosperous and would not be safer.»

Q: Are military forces as strong as at the beginning of the century?

R. «They are weaker in certain capabilities, in intelligence, for example. We have fallen a bit short to quickly move forward in disruptive technology, such as the theme of drones and anti -Dangones (…) we do not have the same aircraft flying that we had 10 years ago ».

Q: And how are enemies?

A: «Stronger, you have to say it.»

AFP