National Army removes general who would have made alliances with drug traffickers

This Sunday, February 13, the National Army sent a statement in which it assures that the General Hernando Herrera Diaz He was removed from his position, as there are audios of a meeting that would demonstrate the alliance of uniformed men with drug trafficking to combat the Gentil Duarte dissidents in Cauca.

According to the statement, the case will be taken to “Attorney General of the Nation, so that not only the general mentioned there is investigated, but also the military personnel who could participate in the meeting cited by the media, since it was their obligation, at the time, to denounce these alleged illegal activities.”

In this meeting, the general gives details of how Los Pocillos is organized, a criminal gang from Cauca, and admits that he has met with them on different occasionsbut assuring that he is doing it to stop Gentil Duarte’s dissidence, which is behind the Micay River corridor.

At the end of the audios you can hear the uniformed man saying: “This is fucking war.” These words as a confession led to the institution separating him this Sunday from the position he held in the National Army.

According to Cambio magazine, the meeting took place in July 2019 and there General Herrera spoke openly with his subordinates about the macabre alliance he had with drug traffickers.

This is the full statement:

Regarding the publication of February 13, 2022, which refers to a general officer of the Force, the National Army Command is allowed to inform that:

1. The official position of the institution cited by the communication medium corresponded to the consultation carried out by it on February 11.

2. Today upon becoming aware, through the publication of the audios that account for the allegedly irregular behavior of a general officer, the institution will transfer the information contained therein to the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, so that it can be investigated not only to the general mentioned there, but to military personnel who were able to participate in the meeting cited by the media, since it was their obligation, at the time, to denounce these alleged illegal activities.

3. It was ordered to initiate the disciplinary investigation according to the competence indicated in Law 1862 of 2017, without prejudice to the fact that the Attorney General’s Office, exercising the preferential power, assumes the competence of the fact. And accordingly, the National Army will provide the necessary collaboration to the competent authorities.

4. In the study carried out last year at the time of Brigadier General Hernando Herrera Díaz, in order to be considered for promotion to the next higher rank, no criminal or disciplinary investigation was recorded for the events recorded in the news or any other whose situation rise to an impediment.

5. Likewise, the displacement of a commission of the General Inspectorate of the Army was ordered to carry out the verifications in accordance with its competence.

6. Since it is in the interest of the institution to contribute to the clarification of the facts, the aforementioned officer is removed from his position, appointing as of that moment Mr. Brigadier General Fredy Marlon Coy Villamil, as commander of the Sixth Division of the National Army.

7. Policies, directives, plans, circulars and, in general, any document issued by the National Government, the Ministry of Defense, the General Command of the Military Forces or the Command of the National Army, as in the processes of training personnel in schools and in the training received in the promotion courses, is always oriented so that men and women abide by the Constitution, the Law, the norms of human rights and international humanitarian law, guiding guidelines that have been disseminated at all levels of the institution.