General Zapateiro is denounced to the Attorney General's Office for participating in politics

Not for the controversy over the crossing of trills between the commander of the Colombian National Army, General Eduardo Zapateiro, and the candidate for the presidency for the left-wing coalition Historic Pact, Gustavo Petro.

In the midst of the stir, Petro accused the President of the Republic, Iván Duque, of using public forces for electoral purposes. The president succumbed to the temptation to participate in politics to defend the commander, while the other candidates took sides and Senator Roy Barreras decided to denounce Zapateiro to the Attorney General's Office.

First, during the run that the former mayor of Bogotá is carrying out in the department of Boyacá, he accused Duque of using his power and influence to impose Fico Gutiérrez, who would allegedly be the outgoing president's preferred candidate.

On the other hand, from Cartagena, President Iván Duque came to the defense of Commander Zapateiro during his speech at the Asofondos Congress. After the elected congressman of the Green Alliance party Duvalier Sánchez publicly rebuked him about the general's behavior, the president decided to respond.

For the president, Petro has the political responsibility to report with evidence any irregularity he knows about the conduct of the security forces. Otherwise, he said, saying that these are complicit in drug trafficking without evidence should be considered an aggression and an attempt to muddy the institutionality that should not go unpunished.

At this point it should be recalled that there are two articles of the Political Constitution of Colombia that, in theory, would punish the conduct of General Zapateiro. One is number 219, which indicates that public forces are not deliberative, and the other is 127, which prohibits public servants from intervening in electoral politics.

The natural leader of the Historical Pact did not miss the opportunity that the president extended to him by defending a member of the security forces for engaging in politics — by the way, he did too. He accused him of breaking the Constitution.

For his part, Senator Roy Barreras, today an ally of the Historical Pact, filed a disciplinary complaint for very serious misconduct with the Attorney General's Office against General Zapateiro, in which he called for the army commander to be immediately suspended for his “flagrant political belligerence”.

The candidate mentioned by Petro during his run, Federico Gutiérrez, responded to the controversy with another trill from his own account.

For his part, Sergio Fajardo, the candidate of the Coalition of Hope, surprised to take a clear position on the controversy: he pointed out that Zapateiro's words are not justified and that the participation of the security forces in politics should not be normalized.

On the night of April 19, a unit of the Army's Fourth Brigade was attacked by members of the Gulf Clan. In the event, three soldiers were killed, five wounded and four others had disappeared; however, in the last few hours the number of soldiers killed rose to seven.

The incident generated the indignation of public opinion and candidate Gustavo Petro, who added a criticism of the senior commanders of the National Army to the rejection of the attacks. According to him, it is regrettable that the deaths of some soldiers occur while some corrupt generals rise in the institution.

“While the soldiers are killed by the Gulf clan, some of the generals are on the Clan's payroll. The top is corrupted when it is the politicians of drug trafficking who end up promoting the generals,” said Gustavo Petro on his official Twitter account, citing the report given on the social network by the Sergeant (RA) of the National Army, Alexander Chala Sáenz, giving details about the attack in which the seven uniformed men died.

General Eduardo Zapateiro, who was offended, tried back to demand respect from the leader of the left, as well as asking him not to engage in politics through the attacks of which the country's Armed Forces are victims.

He emphasized that “more than 500 soldiers have been killed and injured during the completion of the mission” since 2011 and, apparently, for Gustavo Petro they had been “invisible”, since he had not spoken out. That is why he stressed that his pronouncement was more due to the fact that the country is in the middle of a political campaign ahead of the presidential elections.

In addition, the uniformed man asked the politician that if he knew of high commanders who were related to drug trafficking, he would make a proper complaint to the Prosecutor's Office. “Senator, do not use your inauguration (parliamentary inviolability) to try to make politicking with the death of our soldiers, but rather fulfill your citizen duty of substantiated denunciation to the Prosecutor's Office of the facts you mention, whoever you are.”

The following trills of the army commander called for respect on the part of the senator, noting that he himself also “is part of the collective that he dares to point out as 'politicians of drug traffickers'”.

General Zapateiro also recalled the controversy that arose when the senator was seen receiving money in a stock exchange. “I haven't seen any general on television receiving badly gotten money. Colombians have seen you receive money in a garbage bag,” he said.

Finally, General Zapateiro demanded respect for the National Army and its uniformed personnel, who “unconditionally, have defended the democracy of this nation for more than 200 years, even offering their own lives.”

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