Security update
October 10: an Air Force investigation and an ultimatum on Veterans Day
Here's what happened since the last update, and what each one means.
1The president orders an Air Force investigation after drug claims against the former first lady
On October 10, Semana published an interview by Vicky Dávila with Eva Ferrer, who worked in Gustavo Petro's campaign and then was a presidential adviser. Ferrer says Petro's wife, Verónica Alcocer, carried drugs to Venezuela on the first lady's official plane in January 2023 and came back with 2.5 million dollars. She says the businessman Manel Grau told her about the money, confirmed there were drugs and told her Petro didn't know. Much of what she says came to her from other people, and the interview shows no documents. Semana also published flight logs: 149 trips in Alcocer's name from August 12, 2022 to July 22, 2026, 137 of them on state aircraft and 133 linked to the Air Force. A trip to Venezuela on January 31, 2023 appears on an Air Force Legacy jet with Grau aboard. Alcocer hasn't answered in any of the reports we read. At 4:01 PM, the president wrote: "I have ordered the Commander of the Air Force to conduct a thorough investigation into the serious events reported by the magazine SEMANA." The Air Force's inspector general and counterintelligence will look at current and former staff of the teams involved at CATAM, the military air terminal in Bogotá. He asked the Fiscalía, the Supreme Court, the Inspector General's Office (Procuraduría) and the United States to investigate as well.
What it meansThese are one witness's claims. The flight logs show who flew and where. They don't show what was on board. Now the Air Force has to investigate its own people, and by naming the United States, the president has invited the Americans to look too.
2An ultimatum on Veterans Day
On Saturday, October 10, at a tribute to veterans at the ARC Bolívar naval base in Cartagena, the president told the armed groups they can lay down their weapons, submit to justice and answer to the judges for their crimes. Those who keep killing, kidnapping and extorting will face the Military Forces and the Police. "The time for playing freeze tag and for appeasement is over," he said. He also announced a job bank to connect veterans with work.
What it meansIn our October 4 update, he named 2 Gulf Clan leaders in Sucre and told them to surrender. This time he named no group. It's the same offer, made to all of them at once.
34 captured for the attack that killed an army sergeant near Popayán
The army captured 4 people it says belong to the Carlos Patiño front of Iván Mordisco's FARC dissidents, for the October 9 attack at Mi Bohío, on the Pan-American Highway between Popayán and Timbío. Sergeant First Class Ángel David Ordóñez Ortiz was killed and 2 police officers were wounded. All 4 are in the hands of the Fiscalía. Popayán's mayor's office is offering up to 20 million pesos for information on attacks on the security forces in the city.
What it meansThe first reports named no group. Now the army blames Mordisco's dissidents, and 4 suspects are before the Fiscalía for the killing of a soldier.
On social media
The Air Force post is his biggest of the day: 136,000 views, 8,500 likes and 420 replies. The most-liked reply is a critic's: "HAHAHA Eva Ferrer already said that what she claims she can't sustain before a judge because she has no proof. Do you want to divert attention from the fact that your wife doesn't answer for the foundation's money and that the earthquake aid doesn't exist to this day?" (90 likes) We didn't find that statement in the interview we read. Another critic: "Good, they should investigate you too." (23 likes) But most of the well-liked replies back him: "Gustavo Petro and his mafia group of criminals almost finished off the country, and they're mired up to their necks in drugs, dirty money and even arms trafficking." (22 likes) And: "Our dream is about to come true." (19 likes) The new theme among his supporters: they don't trust the Attorney General's Office (Fiscalía) to act, and want the United States to step in. The rest of his day was Veterans Day posts (the biggest drew 34,000 views and 3,000 likes) and a ports decree. As of 6:20 PM, he still hadn't posted about the sergeant killed at Mi Bohío. This comes from the top replies on X, not a poll.
I support most of this. But it doesn't go far enough. These groups use any space they're given to reset and grow. They need to be crushed, not contained.