Left’s electoral rise generates opposition from the military in Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Famous for their fight against guerrillas, the Colombian military barely participated in politics, but the likely coming to power of a former rebel and leftist opponent has broken the silence in the barracks.

Gustavo Petro, who fought the state until the early 1990s, is the favorite in the polls to win the May 29 presidential election, but he would not get enough votes to avoid a runoff.

If the result is confirmed, it would be the first time a former guerrilla would lead the armed forces of a country in conflict, historically governed by conservative and liberal elites and without the history of military coups that crosses the continent.

His rise worries the barracks. From the president to the defense minister to the army commander, all have lined up against Petro. Although the constitution prevents them from voting and deliberating, analysts note that rarely have men-at-arms acted so openly in a campaign.

“There are those who perceive within the Armed Forces that this war has been won on the battlefield but is lost on the political field (…). It is considered that the political class with which the army has been aligned, which is the one that has always governed, is losing,” analyst and retired colonel Carlos Alfonso Velásquez explained to AFP.

Petro, 62, was active in the M-19, a nationalist guerrilla group that established peace in 1990, before spending time in exile in Europe and returning to his country to become a congressman and then mayor of Bogotá (2012-2015).

A military sector is watching the candidate with “a certain distrust and fear,” says Reserve Colonel Jose Marulanda, president of the Colombian Association of Reserve Officers (ACORE). “We feel that he has an evident resentment against the military and police, who were the ones who killed his M-19 comrades in combat,” he says.

The troops’ old enemy could be the commander-in-chief of 228,000 soldiers and 172,000 policemen. Together, they form the largest armed forces on the continent, after Brazil. The United States has allocated many resources to training and equipment against drug trafficking and rebel groups.

The commander of the army, General Eduardo Zapateiro, has taken the controversy with Petro to the most intense point with a series of tweets after he denunciated alleged alliances between generals and drug traffickers that have cost the death of soldiers.

Zapateiro accused him of “politicking” and of taking electoral advantage of the deaths of soldiers. According to the court, he also alluded to a 2005 video in which Petro was seen receiving bundles of bills.

“I have not seen any general on television receiving illicit money. Colombians saw you receiving money in a garbage bag,” Zapateiro fired back.

As a result of his comments, the officer faces a preliminary investigation for intervening in politics. At the same time, President Iván Duque has come out in his support, as has Defense Minister Diego Molano, who called Petro a “liar.”

The military, which has waged a conflict for more than six decades, participated in the negotiations that led in 2017 to the disarmament of the FARC. A reserve general was part of the negotiations but criticized the peace agreement for its supposed concessions to the rebels.

Among his proposals, Petro wants to reduce the military budget (currently 3.4% of GDP), apply a merit-based promotion policy, and separate the police from the Ministry of Defense.

With information from AFP