Inspector General of the Police resigned due to differences with the director general of the institution

This Thursday, Police Inspector General Carlos Ernesto Rodríguez, due to differences with General Jorge Luis Vargas, asked for his retirement from the institution and leaves office.

Serious discussions reportedly took place between the two officials, which showed that Gen. Rodríguez wanted to be director of the police. In addition, according to some sources, the Director-General of Police asked the Inspector General to request his outstanding vacation or his retirement from the institution.

For its part, the institution indicated that “As has been widely reported since the previous year, when this transformation process, which today has the Career Statute and Disciplinary Statute laws, was launched, the General Inspectorate of the National Police is also part of this restructuring. Proof of this is, for example, the creation of a Delegated Inspectorate for Public Demonstration. Within the framework of this process, which establishes the General Inspection and Professional Responsibility instance, there are relays such as the one that today gives rise to the request for voluntary retirement of Major General Carlos Ernesto Rodríguez Cortés, who held that position.”

He added that “it is moving forward in a dynamic and irreversible process of Integral Transformation to offer a more efficient service to citizens” and that as part of those changes last week the organizational structure of the Institution was simplified with the creation of three headquarters that group most of the units, as follows: the National Headquarters Department of Human Development, which integrates the Directorates of Incorporation, Human Talent, Police Education, Social Welfare and Health, the National Headquarters of the Police Service, which integrates the Directorates of Criminal Investigation and Interpol, Intelligence, Carabineros, Anti-Narcotics, Traffic and Transport, Protection and Special Services, as well such as Anti - Kidnapping and Anti-Extortion, and the National Headquarters of Resource Administration, which brings together the Logistics and Finance Directorates, and the Directorate of Infrastructure.”

It is noteworthy that Rodríguez has a career of more than 34 years of experience in security and citizen coexistence. He has a Master's Degree in Public Safety, Security Specialist, Undergraduate in Police Administration, Diploma in Police Management and International Relations, Seminar on Occupational Health and Safety Management System, Management Management in Improving the Institutional Climate, Anti-Narcotics Intelligence Course and Training Techniques Course protection.

Likewise, when Rodríguez's appointment was announced, it did not go well with the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which, under the direction of José Miguel Vivanco, rejected that Major General Rodríguez should be in charge of the directorate responsible for advising the institutional command in directing the ethical behavior of uniformed personnel.

In addition, it should be noted that General Rodríguez, the commander (e) of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, was in charge of the order on the night of September 9 and 10, 2020, and just that day 11 protesters died in the capital of the country, apparently at the hands of the police.

It should be recalled that events such as these have occurred on other occasions, for example, that was the case with Generals Óscar Atehortua and William Salamanca, who had a fight in the past because the previous director of the police, General Atehortua, was uncomfortable with the inspector, General Salamanca, who decided to open several investigations against the director for alleged misappropriation of funds, etc.

It should be noted that, there is still no official communication or statement from either of the two officials, nor are there any further details of the discussion between Rodríguez and Vargas.

Likewise, a few days ago it became known that the Administrative Court of Cundinamarca had notified the National Police on October 11, 2021 that: “The Director General of the National Police recognizes the responsibility of the Institution and offers excuses to Mr. Jorge Alejandro Ospina Cogua and Mrs. Ana Belén Cogua Vargas, for the inclusion of the photograph of the first citizen mentioned in the so-called “Cartel of Vandals”, which was disseminated on 29 August 2013 by the General Directorate of the National Police of that time”.

In a tweet annexed to a statement, the Directorate General made the excuses stating: “The National Police is an institution that respects judicial decisions and guarantees the exercise of public rights and freedoms, within the framework of the Constitution and the law”.

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