The director of the National Protection Unit (UNP), Augusto Rodríguez, was the victim of an attack on Thursday night.
Four hitmen on two motorcycles perpetrated a shooting attack against the official when he arrived at his house in Puente Aranda, after picking up his daughter from the university.
This was confirmed by the President of the Republic, Gustavo Petro, through Twitter: “They have attacked Augusto Rodríguez, director of the UNP and my partner from the M19.
Augusto denounced the recruitment mafias at the UNP.
Today they wanted to kill him."
They have attacked Augusto Rodríguez, director of the UNP and my partner from the M19.
Augusto denounced the recruitment mafias at the UNP.
Today they wanted to kill him, I ask the prosecutor to speed up the investigations into these complaints, the evidence is in his hands.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) March 8, 2023
The previous night there had already been an incident, according to the official on W Radio.
Custody had detected a vehicle that was following them and had asked Rodríguez, one of the president's most trusted people, not to get out of the car until the situation was under control.
On Tuesday, however, the official quickly got out of the vehicle and entered his house, seconds before the shooting began.
The UNP director was unharmed, but the confrontation between guards and criminals ended with an injured escort and a dead hitman.
The official has indicated this Wednesday that he has suspicions that the attack came from within the entity he directs.
In particular, he has singled out on W Radio two unions with which he is in conflict: “I can't say that this is the case, but I don't want to rule it out.
The moment I arrived at the entity I found myself in a complicated situation.
Vehicles were scarce, and [there were] groups of cartel culture.
So I tried to diversify and found myself with a first attempt at unemployment.
The UNP is an organization dedicated to protecting people in particular situations of risk.
He assigns them cars, bodyguards, bulletproof vests and other means of protection.
It currently does so with at least 7,000 citizens, of which 3,600 are social leaders.
The irregularities that Rodríguez denounced after taking charge of him are various: vehicles used to mobilize cocaine, transport of a drug trafficker who escaped from prison, cars with false armor and mafia clans.
The official then decided to start renting armored vehicles directly to avoid intermediaries, since the UNP does not have its own cars but hires them from third parties.
The pressures have been constant.
At the beginning of February, Rodríguez recounted these situations in an interview with this newspaper, after he had been pushed and reprimanded by members of a union when he was leaving the UNP.
“There is a kind of pressure from movements that are called trade unions so that one does not act within the law.
So that, suddenly out of desperation, he ends up favoring someone, ”he denounced.
After the attack on Tuesday, the official has commented on Caracol Radio that he will not resign from office, although he will change his residence.
The Government has shown solidarity with Rodríguez and has indicated the fight against corruption as the cause of the attack.
The Vice President of the Republic, Francia Márquez, has expressed that the search for the pacification of the country "involves fighting corruption and mafias wherever they are."
Something similar declared the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez: "Total peace in Colombia must be our premise and end corruption wherever our bulwark comes from."
There have also been repercussions from Congress and international organizations.
The president of the House of Representatives, David Racero, has described Rodríguez as a comrade "who has assumed the task of cleaning up the rotten pot that is the UNP."
Meanwhile, the office of the representative in Colombia of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the attack and has asked the Prosecutor's Office to act diligently: "We express our support for your work and your fight to end corruption in the UNP.
We call for those responsible to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished promptly and effectively.”
Rodríguez has been described, for years, as one of the filters to reach the president.
Comrades in the former guerrilla of the April 19 Movement (M-19), demobilized at the end of the 1980s. The current director of the UNP advised Petro when he was a congressman, at the beginning of this century, and accompanied him in the complaints about the links between politicians and paramilitaries.
“When I fought the battle in Congress to separate the legislator from the mafia and paramilitaries, Augusto Rodriguez accompanied me in all the investigations and debates we did.
Today we are waging that battle in the Executive and they are attempting his life, ”the president recalled this Tuesday.
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