18.11.2003 (By Maria Engqvist, ANNCOL Stockholm) The army-like National Police is an integrated part of Colombia's military forces and is designed to play a key combat role in the war against the popular rebellion led by the country's guerrilla movement. This is the reason why the National Police has been a major receiver of the 1.97 billon dollars that Washington has been pouring into Colombia's military since 2000, according to figures provided by the US-based Center for International Policy.

The US aid was meant to halt or slow the advances of the leftwing guerrilla forces, who are controlling huge chunks of the rural regions and have been closing in on the country's a major cities. In particular, the money stolen by the five generals and an unknown number of lower-ranking officials were meant to pay snitches and informers to provide information about the insurgents' clandestine structures in Colombia's second-largest city Medelli­n.

Instead, Colombia's notoriously corrupt military elite spent at least part of the money on expensive restaurants, parties, music bands, jewellery and chocolate, according to information that was leaked to the press and published earlier this month. One restaurant bill was for almost 1,700 US dollars.

"The police are very good clients of ours. They come here often, and have an open tab," an employee at Medelli­n's La Fragata restaurant told the newsmagazine Semana, which first reported the scandal.


Police provided traffickers with cocaine

Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe, who is no stranger to corruption himself having being sacked twice during his political career for providing favours to powerful drug cartels, was apparently forced by US pressure to take action against the top cops last week.

Uribe sacked half of the country's Police generals, including the supreme National Police commander general Teodoro Campo and the commander of the Police in Medellín, General Leonardo Gallego, who is a key liaison between Uribe and the paramilitary death squads led by Carlos Castaao in the northern Antioquia department. General Gallego and Uribe had announced that they would receive 800 death squad members who have been pardoned for their crimes by the government in a ceremony in Medelli­n on November 25th.

The other three generals that have been removed are chief of operations Luis Alfredo Rodríguez, general Hector Darío and General Vi­ctor Páez. On Wednesday 12th, the commander of the Police in Bogota, General Jorge Castro, was named new chief of the National Police.

Meanwhile, inquiries continue into the disappearance of two tonnes of cocaine being held in custody by the police in Barranquilla. The narcotics, intended for export, was apparently returned to the paramilitary drug traffickers from whom it was seized in the first place.

The corruption scandals comes at the worst possible moment for the extremist government of Uribe, who is still groggy after more than 75 % of the voters last month boycotted a constitutional referendum, that Uribe had called "a vote against terrorism". The purpose of the referendum was to provide further authoritarian powers to the military and the president, and to pave the way for more taxes to pay for the war.

Furthermore, the minister of defence Marta Luci­a Raiírez and the top commander of the military forces, General Jorge Enrique Mora, both resigned last week following a series of defeats to the FARC guerrilla that has inflicted heavy casualties on government troops in recent months. Two other government ministers also resigned, including Uribe's right hand man, the minister of interior and justice, Fernando Londoño.