Duque Accepts Resignation of Colombian Army Commander in Chief

The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, announced Friday that the army's Commander in Chief, Nicacio Martínez, will leave his post and will be replaced by General Eduardo Zapateiro.

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During a press conference, Duque said from the Palace of Nariño that he had had a conversation with Martinez, where he had informed the president  of his decision to leave for "family reasons."

This event occurs two weeks after the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) opened a new investigation into alleged extrajudicial executions, following the finding of a common grave with about 50 bodies buried in Las Mercedes de Dabeiba Catholic Cemetery in Antioquia, in the northeast region of the country.

Tensions in the military camp increased during the Duque administration following the submittal of former Defense Minister Guillermo Botero to a motion of censure, which he overcame with the support of the Right in Congress. However, in November the owner of that portfolio resigned after the scandal over the massacre that was not reported to the country of at least eight minors killed, after a bombing in the southern area of ​​San Vicente del Caguán (Caquetá).

Previously, in September, General Oswaldo Peña Bermeo, head of Joint Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence of Colombia, was removed from his post, after Duque presented at the UN a report on the alleged presence of irregular groups in Venezuela where there were at least four fake photos.

Martinez was linked in a scandal in the Colombian military for the alleged cover-up of the death of civilians at the hands of the military, more than ten years ago, according to an AP newspaper report.

For its part, the New York Times (NYT) conducted an investigation that revealed that generals and colonels of the Army of that country signed an agreement to increase operations and "be effective operationally", with the aim of "killing, capturing or forcing the surrender of criminal and rebel groups."

After this, the Office of the Attorney General in Colombia said on that occasion that it had opened an inquiry of the Army commander and other officials for "alleged irregularities in the guidelines given to the military to improve the results of the operations."

Martinez was the second commander of the Tenth Armored Brigade, between October 2004 and January 2006, where he would have signed irregular payments for the testimony of informants who provided data to carry out military operations. The Colombian Prosecutor's Office opened investigations into 23 executions of that brigade in 2005, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Eduardo Zapateiro, the incoming commander, was born in 1962, graduated in Military Sciences at the Cadet School and ascended to the rank of major general in 2017. During the administration of Álvaro Uribe, he was in charge of the 'Operation Phoenix', a controversial bombing in Ecuadorian territory where Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as 'Raúl Reyes', member of the FARC secretariat and 16 other military groups, died.