Colombian President considers cutting defense budget by US$180 million by 2023

The Colombian Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, has offered the Ministry of Finance to cut his Ministry’s budget by approximately US$180 million by 2023. If this initiative is successful, the Defense portfolio will amount to US$10.8 billion next year.

Velásquez’s proposal comes within the framework of the studies that Gustavo Petro’s government is carrying out to, paradoxically, increase the general Colombian budget for 2023 by up to 4% (US$91 billion) of what was initially foreseen.

The announcement of the minister, a person extremely critical of the Colombian Armed Forces before assuming this position, generated strong questioning within the Second Commission of the Senate, in charge of national defense and public force matters, which would summon the head of this portfolio for a political control debate.

That is another of the decisions taken since Petro’s inauguration that, in terms of defense, generates strong questioning from both political sectors and citizens due to how they may affect not only security but also citizen coexistence, public order, and, of course, the country’s defense.

HIGH LEVELS OF NATIONAL INSECURITY

The announcement, which would undermine the figures earmarked for the acquisition and purchase of new material, comes precisely at a time of high levels of insecurity and severe disturbances to public order in large urban centers, intermediate cities, and rural areas due to the violent action of four organized armed groups – with about 13,000 men in arms – and the criminal activity of multiple criminal organizations, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion, and kidnapping.

With information from Infodefensa