Petro launches the warning of the coup d'état after the protest of thousands of reserve soldiers against him

One of the most important political symbols last August, when Gustavo Petro started his presidency, was to see him walk shoulder to shoulder with the commanders of the Armed Forces: the former guerrilla who fought the State, the former senator who was critical of the actions of the Army, was no longer an enemy but the commander in chief of the most numerous forces in Latin America after those of Brazil. Nine months later, the picture is less harmonious. The government has sought to keep the relationship with the soldiers stable, promising them better salaries and professionalization, while seeking to change the warmongering mentality. But transforming the structure of a military proud of its strength has been a slow and complex task, especially in the face of a more politicized group: those retired from a public force.

"Why are they plotting a coup?" wrote Petro on Twitter Thursday after retired Col. John Marulanda said they should "try to do their best to defenestrate a guy who was a guerrilla." The former director of the Association of Retired Officers of the Military Forces of Colombia (Acore) spoke at that time of Peru, where he believes that "the reserves were successful in defenestrating a corrupt president," referring to Pedro Castillo. Marulanda later regretted what he said, but the damage was done.

Petrismo has feared from the first day of government that the military would attempt a coup d'état, and Marulanda's phrase was justifying their fears. "The calls for a coup are dangerous, irresponsible and border on crime," said Senator María José Pizarro, who called on citizens to support the president. Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco said this statement was "a direct attack on democracy," and both he and the president expect the Attorney General's Office to investigate the issue, as it is a crime to instigate a coup.

The Attorney General's Office, whose head, Francisco Barbosa, comes from living a strong clash with Petro, rejected "any attempt to undermine democratic institutions and their representatives" and "ordered to open a criminal notice" to determine if Marulanda committed a crime. And even opposition figures rejected what the colonel said: former right-wing presidential candidate Federico Gutiérrez repudiated "categorically any allusion that someone could make in relation to an alleged coup d'état."

However, not everyone on the right did: Senator María Fernanda Cabal, who represents the hardest wing of Uribismo and closest to many military personnel, responded to Minister Velasco: "He is not an active colonel, today he is a civilian and his opinion is called, in liberal democracies, 'freedom of expression.'"

Marulanda's statement came a day after hundreds of retired military officers filled Bolivar Square shouting "Petro out!" and "We don't want a dictatorship." Among them were Senator Cabal or her ally House Representative José Jaime Uscátegui, son of a retired general. The new police director, William Salamanca, a retired major, explained that the protest was mainly motivated by recovering allowance 14, a special payment to which retired military personnel used to be entitled, but which a court overturned in 2014. Both Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez and the president have said several times that they want to pay that allowance again and improve the economic situation of the former combatants. "We invite you to a frank and constructive dialogue with the National Government," the minister said after the protest.

Concentration of veterans of the military forces in the Plaza Bolívar, in Bogotá, on May 10, 2023.Santiago Mesa

But the opposition corrected the government. Retired General Jorge Eliecer Camacho, one of those who supported the demonstration, clarified on Blu Radio that the demonstration criticized President Petro's actions towards state institutions. "We will not allow a moment of power to be abused," he said. A circular calling for the demonstration shows that, in addition to supporting the public force, citizens were asked to protest so as not to be "indolent" in the face of reforms "that can impact freedom and order," and to defend the "socioeconomic growth of the Nation."

They are positions aligned with the political right of the country and this, in part, should not be surprising. A considerable group of retirees have been allied for several years with Uribismo, especially since former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) embodied the iron fist leader who economically (and emotionally) strengthened the Military Forces, and who has defended them from criminal investigations. That is why Cabal and Uscátegui were at the demonstration, and the representative even participated in the call. Petro, on the other hand, has been reminding the military for several years that there is corruption in their ranks and that several of them killed more than 6,000 civilians in the tragedy known as false positives.

In response, the president and the government have wanted to differentiate the retirees from the assets, saying that with the latter there is no mess. "There is no conflict between the active uniformed and the National Government," the president said on Twitter after the demonstration. "The democratic tradition of our Forces should NEVER be doubted," said its chief of staff, Laura Sarabia, in the same social network. "A dangerous narrative that some media and opposition politicians want to promote, according to which there is an antagonism between the Public Force and the Government," warned Congresswoman María Fernanda Carrascal, of the Historical Pact.

The president has tried to extend a friendly hand to the active force. Aware that they were enemies, before winning the presidency he sent a letter to all the soldiers in which he promised to improve their health, education and housing services. Strengthening the public force in his leftist government, he said, is to strengthen "the well-being of its members."

The president repeated many of those slogans on Wednesday, in a military celebration: he wants to improve their living conditions, professionalize the Army to the point that it stops depending on young recruits who perform compulsory military service to become a better paid force with better studies. He asked that the defense and finance ministers meet as soon as possible to examine the budget and consider "a leap in the allocation of Colombia's regular soldiers," which, in his opinion, "may move towards the professionalization of the Army."

The president believes that fighting "mafias" or multi-crime organizations, as he calls them, requires better living conditions for the military to keep them away from the temptation of corruption or alliances with powerful criminals. Men in illegal organizations are there for the money, "the dirty money," the president said. He assured that a young man can receive a salary of two million pesos in the powerful gang called Clan del Golfo, while a private soldier, who performs compulsory military service, earns 400,000 pesos per month. "Unfortunately, he has to face today a young man who receives five times more on the other side, defending the illicit economy, and that cannot be," he added.

Criticism of the government's security policy — which, as the defense minister recently explained, prioritizes total peace or going after criminal entrepreneurs rather than their bases — does not come from the active military, who are prohibited from participating in politics. That is why it is not possible to know whether or not they are aligned with retired officers such as John Marulanda, and so far there has been no saber-rattling, similar pronouncements by active officers, or rumors of movements in the barracks. Nor has there been a successful opposition against the defense minister, a well-known anti-corruption lawyer who the previous week emerged unscathed from a no-confidence motion in Congress: 115 votes supported him, against only 17 who called for removing him from office. Beyond what Marulanda said, there is no apparent coup against the president.

"Coups are resisted, and they are defeated, with the mobilization of the people," Petro said at an event on Thursday, calling on citizens to take to the streets for weeks to support his reforms. But so far he has only managed to get the most faithful to take to the streets, not that Colombians demonstrate massively in favor of health or pension reform. If retired military personnel continue to threaten his government on the radio, in a country that prides itself on its long democratic tradition, perhaps Colombians will come out to protest. But not so much to support the reforms, but because phrases like Marulanda's encourage the nightmares of those who do want Colombia's first leftist government to end when the Constitution says so, in 2026.

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