Colombian military loses millions of bullets
By Aleks Phillips & Leonardo Rocha
Colombia’s military has lost millions of bullets, thousands of grenades and several missiles, the nation’s president has said.
Gustavo Petro said the missing items had come to light during recent inspections of military bases.
He blamed the disappearances on internal corruption, saying military personnel sold weapons to arms traders.
His defence minister said investigations into the disappearances were under way.
“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,” Mr Petro told a news conference on Tuesday.
He said the missing items came to light during surprise visits to two military bases – Tolemaida and La Guajira – on 12 February and 1 April, respectively.
At Tolemaida, there was a shortfall of more than 808,000 bullets and nearly 10,000 fewer grenades than the inventory listed on official records.
Meanwhile at La Guajira, the discrepancies included nearly 4.2 million bullets and more than 9,300 grenades. Mr Petro also said the base had lost two Spike missiles, 37 Nimrod missiles and 550 rocket-propelled grenades.
