During his visit in Washington, which began last Monday, the Minister of National Defense, Iván Velásquez, held different meetings with senior representatives of the US government, the legislature and think tanks to explain the policy of total peace.
After the bilateral meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense, UU., Lloyd Austin, and with the undersecretary of Defense for the Western hemisphere, Daniel Erikson, Minister Velasquez assured that so far the US government has not expressed any objection to the security plans, such as the total peace of Colombia.
“No concern was expressed, on the contrary, an endorsement. We say: the way to progress is security, and [the way] to security, peace; and to peace, we want all these organizations to abandon their criminal operations. This concept, really, has been supported, there has been no opposition, contradiction, objection,” the Minister explained in statements to the media.
He clarified that the total peace proposed by the Government of change accepts two types of organizations outlaw: one with which political negotiations will be carried out as it happens today with the National Liberation Army, ELN, and another, with which legal conversations will be held that should lead to the acceptance of a law that is still being processed in Congress.
According to the defense minister, the US government work to provide the continuity of cooperation in military matters. “They proposed the continuity of instruction, training and assistance programs on various fronts, such as this one contributing to improving the resources of the Military Forces, linked to development.”
This cooperation of the United States to Colombia will in the same way imply an expansion in the issues of intelligence, both strategic, with which the National Intelligence Directorate, military and police intelligence will be strengthened, as well as intelligence specifically aimed at the identification of assets product of drug trafficking, for which the Minister announced that information will be shared with the United States Department of Commerce.
He in the same way recalled that the instruction of President Petro in the fight against drug trafficking is not to attack the weakest link in the chain, which is the grower, but to go after the resources of the big bosses or business owners. Therefore, he explained that with more investigation, the assets resulting of the illicit activity will be taken away of them and this will not only weaken the organizations, but should lead to their dismantling.
“In Colombia, intelligence has been used for political pursuit and a lot of political intelligence has been done. We need to do intelligence for the investigation. Political adversaries are respected here, rights are guaranteed to them, no form of political pursuit is tolerated, much less that illegal pursuit and we need a strengthened intelligence that is aimed at combating criminality,” the minister pointed out.
In this agenda that will be carried out in Washington until next Thursday, the Colombian Minister of Defense has in the same way met with human rights organizations and the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies; to whom, he has explained the Government's vision on the eradication of illicit plantations.
“The United Nations says that when eradication is forced there is a reseeding of 62 percent. That means that, if 100 thousand hectares were eradicated, in reality the eradication is 38 thousand hectares. A productive substitution of plantations must be made to generate utilities and adequate means of subsistence for the communities,” said Minister Velásquez.
Finally, he in the same way spoke on the environmental issue, not only from the military and police point of view, based on operations to protect natural resources, but in the same way on the preservation, where a project is being promoted to conserve the Amazon, through incentives for farmers to protect the jungle in their territories.
Source: Defense Sector Communications Office - Ministry of National Defense
