Colombia’s Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez ordered an investigation after television network Caracol revealed that the army’s personnel chief and a top intelligence official had ties to FARC dissident group EMBF.
According to Caracol, the prosecution found the evidence on memory sticks, phones and computers that were seized after EMBF commander “Calarca” and six other guerrillas were detained in July last year at a military checkpoint in the Antioquia province.
The military released the EMBF commander and three of his subordinates because their arrest warrants had been suspended to facilitate peace talks with the government of President Gustavo Petro.
Prosecutors kept the FARC dissidents’ equipment, however, and were able to access communications between Calarca and his lieutenants, reported Caracol.
In one letter that was reportedly found in the Calarca files, the guerrilla commander is informed about a meeting between one of his lieutenants and General Juan Miguel Huertas, who was retired at the time.
In this letter from February 2024, Calarca is informed that Huertas “proposed us to set up a legal security company.”
This front company would have allowed the guerrillas to legally purchase arms and armored cars.
The general says we should split it fifty-fifty, that he will get the permits and we will provide the men and the weapons. He says it’s a good investment because when all these processes fail, we will still have legal men. The general says a company of no more than 20 men, that he will first get the permits for pistols and then get the permits that allow us to carry rifles.
Unidentified EMBF guerrilla
While this company was being set up, the general allegedly offered to personally guarantee the guerrillas’ security.
“He told us that the ties between him and the president allowed him to mobilize you with an order not to stop you anywhere,” Calarca’s unidentified subordinate said additionally.
The deal between Calarca and the retired general was confirmed by an alleged EMBF guerrilla, who told Caracol that they plan was to “create the security company so that our social leaders would have more security when it comes to being able to move around.”
A top official of the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), Wilmar Mejia, and the director of weapons manufacturer Indumil, retired Colonel Juan Carlos Mazo, were also involved in the plot, according to Caracol.
The television network did not report whether or not the plan to create the security firm ever materialized.
Both the general and the DNI official are close allies of the president and adversaries of far-right elements within the military.
Huertas returned to army in July after a years’ long legal battle with retired General Eduardo Zapateiro, the far-right former army commander who sacked the general in early 2022.
Mejia was reportedly involved in the purging of far-right and corrupt official the security forces and the DNI after Petro took office in August of 2022.
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In a response, the defense minister said that he ordered “a rigorous investigation” into the allegations and said that “we have made everything that was required by the prosecutor’s office available to expedite the investigation it is conducting.”
Petro did not immediately respond to the report.
