Corruption behind loss of weapons: Petro

COLOMBIA’S President Gustavo Petro said yesterday an inventory of military weapons showed over a million bullets, thousands of explosives, including grenades, and some missiles were missing from military bases, blaming corruption for the lost weapons. He has ordered any corruption networks within the security forces to be dismantled, he said in a joint statement with the defence minister and the head of the armed forces, saying judicial authorities were investigating. ‘‘The only way to explain this type of lacking [inventory] is that there has existed, for a long time, networks of people in the armed forces and civilians dedicated to mass commercialisation of arms, using legal arms from the Colombian state,’’ Petro said.

The weapons would have gone to Colombian armed groups, and might have been smuggled to Haiti or put on the international black market for weapons.

‘‘We must, undoubtedly, completely separate the armed forces, as with any branch of public power, from any incident of corruption.

‘‘That is the only way to guarantee the safety of our citizens and of the armed forces themselves.’’ More than 1.3 million 5.56mm bullets are missing from inventories at two military bases in Tolemaida in central Colombia and La Guajira province, along with hundreds of thousands of bullets of other calibres.

Two Spike missiles — antitank weapons manufactured in Israel — are also gone, along with 37 Nimrod missiles, which are also made in Israel.

Thousands of grenades and mortar rounds of various sizes and 550 rocketpropelled grenade launchers are also missing. Investigations were under way, Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez said, and some officials had been moved from their posts. — Reuters