Defense Monitor

Colombia Swears In a New Military and Police High Command

Mateo Cruz · Thursday, August 27, 2026 · 6 min read

Colombia · SECURITY

Key Facts

—Ceremony The military high command took office on August 26 at Bogota’s Córdova cadet school.
—Commanders Major General Erick Rodríguez Aparicio now leads Colombia’s Military Forces as commander general.
—Coca The United Nations counted 261,000 hectares of coca in Colombia in 2024, a record.
—Displacement The ombudsman recorded 15,960 displaced and 64,787 confined people in the first half of 2026.
—Budget Analysts put the 2026 defense shortfall at 14 trillion pesos (US$4.5 billion).

Six commanders took the oath in Bogota under orders to recover ground from illegal armed groups.

Colombia’s president swore in a new military high command on August 26 at a Bogota cadet school. He told the commanders to recover security nationwide and to treat illegal armed groups as terrorists.

Major General Erick Rodríguez Aparicio now leads Colombia's Military Forces as commander general. — Major General Erick Rodríguez Aparicio now leads Colombia’s Military Forces as commander general.

A handover at the Córdova cadet school

President Abelardo de la Espriella presided over the change of command on Wednesday, August 26. The ceremony took place at the Escuela Militar de Cadetes General José María Córdova in Bogota.

It was his first formal act as supreme commander of the armed forces since taking office on August 7. Defense Minister Jorge Eduardo Mora, a retired general, stood beside him.

Local media put attendance at more than 360 uniformed personnel. The appointments themselves had been announced six days earlier in Barranquilla.

That earlier announcement moved out 25 generals and admirals named under President Gustavo Petro. Wednesday turned the paper appointments into a formal transfer of command.

Who took the oath

Major General Erick Rodríguez Aparicio became commander general of the Military Forces. Major General Carlos Enrique Carrasquilla Gómez took the post of chief of the Joint Staff.

Major General José Bertulfo Soto Sánchez now commands the National Army. Vice Admiral Javier Alfonso Jaimes Pinilla took the Navy, the first commander to have led the Amazon naval force.

Major General Juan Jaime Martínez Ossa leads the air arm, which is returning to its older name, the Colombian Air Force. General Jesús Alejandro Barrera Peña, recalled from retirement, is director general of the National Police.

Several of these officers had left the service during the previous government. Rodríguez Aparicio holds a master’s degree in international security and strategy from King’s College London.

The orders the president gave

De la Espriella said the aim was “traerle paz a Colombia, pero no la paz que se negocia con los delincuentes”. That means peace for Colombia, but not the peace negotiated with criminals.

He rejected the vocabulary his predecessor used for illegal armed organizations. “En este país no hay disidentes, grupos subversivos ni alzados en armas”, he said, ruling out those labels.

His phrase was “Son terroristas y así los vamos a tratar”, meaning they are terrorists and will be treated as such. The military high command was told to act on that description.

He also barred anyone in government from talking to those groups. “Absolutamente nadie está autorizado para establecer comunicación con los grupos terroristas”, he said, warning that offenders would be prosecuted.

Three priorities set at the ceremony

Infobae reported three tasks handed to the commanders. They were harder operations against organized crime, recovery of territory held by armed groups, and protection of civilians.

The president said the state would stand behind soldiers and police accused of misconduct. He framed that pledge as part of the same push for offensive operations.

Since August 7 the government says 21 leaders of armed organizations have been killed and more than 530 people arrested. Those totals come from the president and are not independently audited.

The military high command inherits a force of more than 180,000 members across army, navy and air force. El Colombiano cited that figure when the appointments were first announced.

The security numbers behind the order

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime counted 261,000 hectares of coca in Colombia in 2024. The figure, published in July 2026, was a record and about 3.5 percent above 2023.

The Defensoría del Pueblo, Colombia’s ombudsman office, recorded 15,960 people displaced in 83 events in the first half of 2026. It counted another 64,787 people confined in 44 events.

Extortive kidnapping reached 477 cases in 2025, the highest in a decade. The Defense Ministry had logged 209 victims in 2024, so the rise was about 128 percent.

In the first quarter of 2026 the ministry counted 3,391 homicides and 2,914 extortion cases. Both were the highest first-quarter totals recorded since 2015.

The groups named and where they operate

The president singled out extortion by FARC dissidents, the ELN and the Clan del Golfo. FARC stands for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose main body disarmed in 2017.

ELN stands for Ejército de Liberación Nacional, the National Liberation Army. The ombudsman named the ELN and FARC dissidents as the structures with the greatest impact on displacement.

Displacement was concentrated in Antioquia, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Bolívar, Cauca and Meta. Confinement fell hardest on Putumayo, Caquetá, Chocó and Cauca.

El País of Cali reported that membership of illegal armed groups roughly doubled between 2018 and 2025. It put the ELN at 6,810 fighters and the Clan del Golfo near 9,480.

Doubts about capacity and money

Andrés Preciado of EAFIT University in Medellín said the institution arrives diminished. He described its financial, logistical and human capacity as clearly depleted.

Andrés Nieto, who directs the security observatory at Universidad Central, wants the total peace policy dismantled. He argues armed groups now tax legal markets, including farm distribution, not only drugs.

El País of Cali put the 2026 defense budget shortfall at 14 trillion pesos (US$4.5 billion). A further 1.6 trillion pesos (US$513 million) is missing for personnel costs.

Those conversions use the official market rate, the Tasa Representativa del Mercado, of 3,118.24 pesos per dollar for August 27, 2026. The rate is published on Colombia’s open data portal.

The same report said only 52 percent of the air arm’s 386 aircraft were operational. That readiness gap is the baseline for the territorial push now ordered.

What to watch next

The commanders have to show results in the departments where displacement and confinement are concentrated. Coca and homicide data for 2026 will be the first public test.

Business groups in extortion-hit regions want faster police response under the new director. The president named merchants and transport operators as the victims he wants protected first.

The military high command also faces the money question, because the reported shortfalls remain unresolved. Any fix has to pass through the national budget that Congress debates each second half.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where did the ceremony take place?

It was held on August 26, 2026, at the Escuela Militar de Cadetes General José María Córdova in Bogota.

Who leads the new military high command?

Major General Erick Rodríguez Aparicio is commander general of the Military Forces. General Jesús Alejandro Barrera Peña directs the National Police.

What did the president order the commanders to do?

He told them to recover security across the country, treat armed groups as terrorists, and hold no talks with them.

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Sources

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