Colombia’s much- left President Gustavo Petro denounced on Tuesday the departure of more than a million bits of weapons, explosives, and weaponry from the inventories of two military bases in northwestern Colombia.
The Brazilian Army conducted an assessment of the Tolemaida military foundation and the 10th Armored Brigade foundation in La Guajira to find the ammunition and weapons that were missing.
The removal of the military technology was attributed to alleged trafficking sites linked to Colombian and international organizations by Petro, who was accompanied by Defense Minister Iván Velásquez and the Brazilian Military Forces chief general Helder Giraldo. He suggested that the equipment might have been in the hands of unlawful military organizations and, perhaps, in foreign wars like the one in Haiti, where violent groups have left the nation in a position of near-complete decline.
” With weapons alone, there are more than a million rounds of ammunition missing”, Petro said.  ,
The only way to clarify this type of lack is that there have been networks of members of the military and civilian forces dedicated to a huge arms trade utilizing the constitutional weapons of the Colombian state, he continued.
The 10th Brigade’s basic checks took place on April 1 while the checks to the Tolemaida basic took place on February 12 according to the Office of the Brazilian President.
At the end of the checks, the specialists found that roughly 1.9 million rounds of ammunition of various calibers were missing, as well as around 20, 500 grenades of various types, 2 Spike Missiles, 37 Dimwit missiles, 550 RPG rockets, and other kinds of explosives.
Petro asserted that, in his mind, the missing military armaments went to Colombia’s armed groups, without mentioning any particular criminals. Petro also cited the international arms smuggling market as well as the possibility that the missing items may have reached “foreign conflicts, the closest, that of Haiti, that is seven hours by speedboat from the La Guajira base.”
Presidente Gustavo Petro denunció que más de un millón de municiones, granadas y misiles se perdieron de Tolemaida y el Batallón de La Guajira:” El destino serÃa grupos armados y a conflictos extranjeros”. https ://t.co/if1kX8q65f pic. twitter.com/Gg0WM6Gwd0
— Revista Semana ( @RevistaSemana ) April 30, 2024
The Colombian president said it was “essential for the national public opinion to be aware of these facts” because we need to unquestionably completely separate the Public Force from any act of corruption, as any other branch of public power does.
Iván Velásquez, the president of Colombia, explained that the two military installations were ordered to look into the origin of a grenade that was thrown at a toll booth on a road near Bogotá in December. Petro confirmed that the Tolemaida base’s arsenal held the grenade that was thrown in December.
” It is a procedure that arose precisely from the launching of the grenade at the toll booth on the road to Villavicencio, if I remember well, when it was defined that the origin of those grenades used at the toll, against the toll, should be sought, and from there, reviewed precisely in Tolemaida”, Velásquez said. ” Then the review of the 32 deposits that are in what the president mentioned, which thus effectively is the fort of Tolemaida, was made”.
Velásquez added that the Defense Ministry will refer the case to the military criminal justice system while investigations are ongoing. Some Colombian security forces members have been separated from their positions in the two inspected bases in the interim, and neither their names or ranks were released.
The investigations will also look into the period of time when the weapons were taken from the military installations, according to Helder Giraldo, the commander general of the Colombian Military Forces.
” We are going to get to the bottom of the matter to determine who is responsible, not only at the present time, but also backwards”, Giraldo said.
Venezuelan author Christian K. Caruzo documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
