Two top Colombian police generals were removed from office on Thursday, the country’s Defense Ministry announced without specifying the reason for their sudden departure.
The early retirement of prison authority director General Gustavo Adolfo Ricaurte and controversial Planning Director Brigadier General Janio Leon Riaño comes days after a number of scandals forced the renunciation of the commander of the Armed Forces and a number of other generals.
However, the two generals that were sacked on Thursday were not related to either the embezzling of resources or the wiretapping of delegations of peace talks with rebel group FARC, which preceded the military purge.
Ricaurte has faced long criticism over an ongoing crisis in Colombia’s maxed out prison system, while the credibility of Leon Riaño, the brother of Colombia’s former military chief, was questioned in December over his purchase of an apartment in the capital Bogota that seemed hardly affordable for a state official.
MORE: 1.6K Inmates Freed Early In Colombia Penal Code Reform, 3K More Pending Release
Ricaurte had already left prison authority INPEC in December and was reportedly waiting to be assigned a diplomatic post.
Sources
- Llaman al retiro a dos generales de la Policía (El Espectador)
- El general Janio León Riaño: Un vecino incómodo (Las 2 Orillas)