8 September 2006International Herald Tribune
The defense minister urged Colombians not to lose faith in the military after army officers were accused of staging bomb attacks — one of which killed a civilian and wounded 10 soldiers — that were attributed to leftist rebels.
The attacks, mostly false alarms or small blasts, were mounted in Bogota just ahead of President Alvaro Uribe's inauguration last month by corrupt soldiers motivated by reward money and the desire to impress superiors with professional responses, authorities said.
"Those guilty will be punished severely," defense minister Juan Manuel Santos told journalists on Friday. "But under no circumstances, and I want to be emphatic here, should the army's credibility be in doubt."
Bogota's mayor, Luis Eduardo Garzon, said he felt like "a useful idiot" for ordering extraordinary security measures ahead of Uribe's Aug. 7 swearing-in based on bogus intelligence that put the city on a virtual war footing.
Army chief Gen. Mario Montoya, announced Thursday evening that troops, including two officers, staged the July 31 car bombing that resulted in the death and injuries when an army convoy passed by.
The case, together with a string of recent scandals linking corrupt army officers to drug traffickers and the murder of innocent civilians, has shaken the nation's faith in its armed forces.
Federal prosecutors now investigating the case refused to provide details. Santos said the soldiers implicated were still on active duty but would soon be temporarily relieved of duty, pending the investigation's outcome.
Bogota's main daily, El Tiempo, reporteded Friday that at least four officers — including a colonel — paid rebel sympathizers to stage the attacks.
The revelation that the army was in cahoots with the same enemy of the state it's been fighting for four decades outraged Colombians and is likely to carry a political cost for Uribe, who has just commenced his second four-year term.
Uribe regularly credits the strength and loyalty of his military for a sharp drop in kidnappings and homicides.
"The president needs to answer for this," said opposition Sen. Gustavo Petro. "It's the climate generated by the demand for results that led to these lamentable incidents."
U.S. Ambassador William Wood, speaking with journalists Friday, praised Gen. Montoya for "his gesture of transparency, and commitment to investigate the incidents fully."
The army is the main recipient of more than US$4 billion (€3.1 billion) in U.S. anti-narcotics military aid since 2000.
But El Tiempo, whose investigation appears to have prompted Montoya's public airing of his subalterns' misconduct, said the army chief knew for at least three weeks about the existence of videotapes and wiretapped phone conversations linking soldiers to the attacks.
Santos would not comment on the investigation other than to say the military was cooperating fully and that prosecutors had "overwhelming evidence."
Colombia's army is struggling to clear its battered reputation, with officers accused of trying to pass off as leftist rebels the bodies of innocent civilians killed.
An army colonel and his platoon also have been arrested for May ambush of an elite anti-narcotics unit near the southern town of Cali in which 10 police officers were killed
Montoya originally classified the case as a tragic case of friendly fire, but prosecutors say the attack was performed on behalf of drug traffickers.
Montoya was the only one of Colombia's top four military chiefs to keep his job after a major shake-up last month of the armed forces.
