SEMANA learned that the president received information from the Army commander, General Luis Mauricio Ospina. The report was made by the inspection of that institution.
However, Ospina would not have explained this information in detail to Petro, to the Minister of Defense, Iván Velásquez, nor to the commander of the Military Forces, General Helder Giraldo. That omission misled Petro.
The true figures are different from those disclosed by Petro and much smaller. SEMANA reviewed in detail the report of the work missions of the Army Inspection, specifically 0036 and 0017 of 2024, and found that the reality is different.
Petro said 2 million weapons and ammunition were lost, but the official figure is much lower. In reality there were 150,507 units of war material, including ammunition and grenades.
The figure reported by Petro was due to war material that had not been loaded into software that the Army has where strict control of that institution’s inventory is maintained.
The president, not receiving a detailed explanation from General Ospina before the press conference, became confused and considered everything missing.
In fact, in his account on stolen from just two military cantons, Tolemaida and La Guajira, show how they allowed the mafias to penetrate institutions by brandishing false ideologies.”
The president added: “With these munitions today they kill the same members of the public force, the citizens and, perhaps, the young people and people of Haiti and other places in the world. They are mercenaries of violence and greed, and justice must discover their links, the high-ranking military leaders involved and their national and international contacts.”
One of the biggest differences has to do precisely with the 500 RPG grenades that Petro reported missing. This is a high-power ammunition.
However, the true figure is that there has been no loss of that ammunition. The 500 that the president referred to were that they had not yet been uploaded to the software, which does not mean that they have been stolen from the cantons.
Another piece of information that illustrates the dumping has to do with the 5.56 millimeter caliber ammunition. While Petro said that 761,000 units would have been lost in La Guajira, in reality there were 102,234.
In the case of Tolemaida, compared to the same ammunition, the president reported the loss of 626,514 units, when in reality there were 18,562.
In any case, this war material would have disappeared and it is being investigated whether members of the institution would have stolen it and sold it to criminal groups, as usually happens.
The graph that Petro shared shows a column where ‘Missing SAP material’ is indicated. That means that it is war material that has not been loaded into the software. Petro, given information from General Ospina, gave that figure as if all that material had been lost.
SEMANA learned, from sources in the Army Inspection, that General Ospina has not yet called President Petro or Minister Velásquez to clarify this situation.
Likewise, a senior official in La Guajira, who felt singled out after the president’s misinterpreted report, sent a message via WhatsApp chain in the last few hours.
This medium learned of its content, and there it states: “It is regrettable that the army commander has passed inaccurate information to the president of the republic about such critical information as the loss of war material. This not only shows a lack of rigor in his work, but also a lack of character in not assuming his error and rectifying it in a timely manner. This situation leaves the institution in a compromised position, raising doubts about its ability to lead and safeguard the security of Colombians.”
Furthermore, the officer adds: “As a Colombian, it is discouraging to see how the lack of character and leadership of the Army commander is affecting the image of the institution and putting the security and trust of citizens at risk. A general is not there to be a “youtuber”, but to lead, make correct decisions and solve problems that may arise in the organization he commands.
