Former President Álvaro Uribe supported the Army amid the controversy over the trills against Gustavo Petro

Without referring directly to the presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, nor to the commander of the Army, General Eduardo Zapateiro, former President Álvaro Uribe reacted to the controversy that aroused the high official's trills against the candidate for the Historical Pact, who had pointed out that there was a collusion among the members of that military force with drug traffickers of the Gulf Clan.

“The Armed Forces equally protect those of both political orientations, each member risks life and family, they are not deliberative but they have every right to defend their honor,” said the former president.

The former senator also assured that the security forces in the country had the right to criticize those who wanted to sully that institution for electoral purposes.

“The Armed Forces, the most extensive democratic and republican in Latin America, have every right to defend their honor against the political narrative that has been created against it, a narrative that ultimately harms the security and freedom of citizens,” he added in another publication on that social network.

The political storm that broke out on account of General Eduardo Zapateiro's Twitter post against the candidate for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, also provoked the reaction of Sergio Fajardo, who said it was unacceptable that the senior official broke into the presidential campaign with his opinions, in which many qualify as participation in politics on the part of the military and with which it would have even violated the Colombian Constitution itself.

The candidate for the presidency for the Centro Esperanza coalition disqualified the publication of the commander of the National Army against the Bogotá Exacal, who after the death of seven soldiers in Frontino (Antioquia), in a bomb attack attributed to the Gulf Clan, claimed that there was a collusion between drug traffickers and officers of that military force.

“Petro has been one of my strongest contradictors and I have been the target of his attacks, but General Zapateiro's words are unacceptable,” Fajardo said.

The former governor of Antioquia added that following this opinion expressed by Zapateiro, the Military Forces were also being included in the presidential debate, something that, in principle, Colombia is prohibited by the same order of the State.

“Not only was the political participation of government officials normalized, but the Armed Forces were politicized. That's not the way!” , finished off the candidate in his trill.

After his back-up reaction, Gustavo Petro thanked him through the same social network, in the face of the criticism made by General Zapateiro.

However, candidate Federico Gutiérrez, who follows Petro in the voting intention, also endorsed the army commander and justified his tirade, in addition to calling those questioning the military forces a “double moralist”.

“I am impressed that a military man's triune is more indignant than the dozens of policemen and soldiers who have been killed in the last week. The double standard of some political sectors of the country is impressive. They don't even feel sorry anymore! I support our military forces,” said the former mayor of Medellín, which triggered a rifirrafe on Twitter with Petro, who questioned what Fico said.

All this controversy arose after Petro pointed out, amid the rejection of the attack on soldiers in Frontino on April 19, that there was a collusion between senior army officials and drug trafficking groups.

“While 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”, trino.

Before its publication, General Zapateiro reacted and told the candidate, through a Twitter thread, that if he knew about these criminal associations, he should report them to the competent authorities.

“Senator, do not use your investiture (parliamentary inviolability) to try to make politicking with the death of our soldiers, rather fulfill your citizen duty of substantiated denunciation to the Prosecutor's Office of the facts you mention, whoever you are,” reproached the commander of the Army.

In his trills, the commander of the Army 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 have not seen any general on television receiving bad money. Colombians have seen you receive money in a garbage bag,” he said.

The controversy was joined by the president, Iván Duque, who supported the senior official and pointed out that Petro has a political responsibility to denounce 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.

“There are many men in this country who give their lives daily to protect all of us. Whoever violates the Constitution and the law submits to it, but accusations cannot be made with impunity and pretend that institutions cannot have an answer,” said the president.

What happened escalated to the point that the senator elected by the Historical Pact, Roy Barreras, asked the Office of the Attorney General to initiate a disciplinary process for what he considered an interference in politics by the army commander, since the Colombian Constitution provides, through article 219, that the public force is not deliberative, and article 127 that public servants are prohibited from intervening in electoral politics.

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