7/30/2019 Does Military Power Consolidate in the Consolidation Program

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Does military power consolidate in the Consolidation Program?

Translated for La Silla Vacía by Matilda Villarraga

In September of last year, when the Government asked Álvaro Balcázar for the resignation as the director of the Consolidation Program, the question that remained was whether to meet bureaucratic appetites,Santos was willing to sacrifice to the program that was not only essential for the land restitution andreparation to victims, but also to consolidate peace if one day the rebels lay down their arms. Six monthslater, the answer is yes. The consolidation program not only remains an inefficient program but is nowalso politicized and with a growing influence of the Ministry of Defense.

The objective of the Consolidation Unit is to guarantee State construction in areas where traditionally theguerrillas have made presence and where safety is not guaranteed. Where it is still necessary to"consolidate" democracy bringing the State and demonstrating to citizens that they are also citizens with

rights.

This program was the seal that Juan Manuel Santos tried to print to the Democratic Security policy sincehe was Uribe's Defense Minister, and counted - and still does- on strong funding from United States.

When Santos was elected President one of his decisions was to remove the Consolidation Program of theMinistry of Defense and pass it to the Presidency with the objective that it would have a true civilorientation and ceased to be seen as part of the Program of Integral Action of the army, which had a purely counterinsurgency logic.

In the beginning of the Government, there was an operative table on Consolidation in the Council of  National Security presided by the now Commissioner of Peace Sergio Jaramillo, and coordination at high

level existed from the national Government. Nevertheless, when Jaramillo devoted himself to thenegotiation with the Farc and practically eliminated the Council of Security, the program slowly began tolose its importance for the President.

"As La Silla reported at the time, in September, at a meeting in the Palace the U party, 'asked' thePresident the post of the Consolidation Unite, an appealing position, as in 2012 managed an investment budget of 182 billion, direct dialogue with hundreds of municipalities and the possibility of appointingofficials in several regions of the country. And Santos gave it to them.

It was appointed as director of the unit German Chamorro de La Rosa. De la Rosa is a veterinary doctor from Pasto, a city in the southwest of Colombia, whose career in consolidation or management issues was

nil but who had managed Santos’ political campaign in Nariño and was close to the Senator of the UManuel Enriquez, a Uribe follower who had just entered the national direction of the party and whoseloyalty to the President, was important to win.

Although they took out Balcazar on the grounds that had very low levels of execution, Chamorro not hasfared better. In fact, he has fared worse.

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According to the official data of the entity, the Program of Consolidation has an execution of 4,7 per centand has committed only 17,7 per cent of the budget.

The director of the Program Germán Chamorro explained to La Silla in writing that "in compliance withthe principle of planning, between the months of January and March state institutions develop or advancetheir contractual processes in order to implement the budget. In view of the above the actual execution of the budget starts in the second quarter. "

However, other programs that also depend on the Administrative Department of prosperity far exceed thelevels of implementation of consolidation: ICBF has executed the 16.8 per cent and has committed 74 per cent of the budget, the victims unit 15.5 per cent; the same DPS has executed 13, 7 per cent and hascommitted 70 percent. Even Balcazar - who was sacked by inefficient - had executed double thanChamorro during this same period in 2012.

It is possible that the low performance of Chamorro is explained by the "political purge" the entity livedonce he arrived and because of that, many of the technicians who had spent years working onconsolidation left the company and have been replaced by people of a more political edge.

The feeling today among observers of this program consulted by La Silla is that consolidation has run outof a clear line. La Silla confirmed that the farmer beneficiaries change their rules frequently, which hasmade them lose confidence in the program of eradication of illicit crops. For example, they promise thema subsidy for a period of time in exchange for not having coke in their farms. But then, they tell them onlyif they do not grow coca across the township.

Just yesterday, the coca farmers in Tumaco were in an uproar because the Consolidation Program has notdone what they promised.

The new appointment

To add wood to the fire, now there joins a new appointment that although it has not materialized becausethe CV still has not been published by Presidency, it is already generating polemic.

Chamorro, through direct intervention of the Minister of Defense Juan Carlos Pinzón, is going to name asthe director of the Program against Illicit Crops (PCI) Javier Flórez, an adviser from his office.

Florez is a political scientist from the University of Rosario (well known) with a Masters in PoliticalStudies and International Relations at the National University who worked with Balcázar in the IntegralConsolidation Plan de la Macarena in 2009 and then was his advisor while he was director. WhenBalcazar left, Flórez was one of the few that survived the sweep of the new director and continued as hisadvisor.

La Silla Vacia spoke to three different people who worked with Florez in the program and all agreed onhis seriousness, intelligence, commitment and knowledge about consolidation. "It is the only oneremaining from school of Balcázar," one of them said. 'Very few people know so much aboutconsolidation as he does', said one of his former teammates.

However, Florez is 27 years old and has just five years of professional experience, most of this inacademia or in research. Although very familiar with the issue of consolidation, his administrative

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expertise is scarce and has not had the opportunity to demonstrate his management skills or leadership inmanaging large projects of development or of governance.

And in a few days, you will begin to handle 80 percent of the budget of consolidation that exceeds 150 billion pesos; he will coordinate 120 crews of manual eradicators who are difficult to manage; And basically, he will be responsible for the success or failure of two programs crucial to the success of the

implementation of the agreements reached in Havana: the alternative development and in a good part, therural development in the areas under the influence of the guerrillas.

Out of his short professional trajectory for the level of responsibility that it will assume it is the fact thathe is the son of General Javier Alberto Flórez, who as Commander of the Joint Task Omega accomplishedthe end of the ‘Mono Jojoy’, among other multiple achievements in his military career.

"He is the most distinguished Army officer for execution and planning of military operations," says a profile on General Kienyke published in 2011. By then, he had won eight gray medals, for distinguishedservice in law enforcement operations. Today, General Florez is a member of the General Command of the Army, under the leadership of Minister Pinzón, who, as La Silla could verify, is behind theappointment of Florez Jr.

The General Rafael Colon, who worked on Consolidation in the position that now occupies Florez and ishighly respected in the area, told La Silla he believes that this appointment is very wise.

"The appointment of Javier Florez is beneficial for the PCI because it facilitates the breaking of nay barrier of communication with the Ministry of Defense," said Colon.

Colon said that such a relationship with the Ministry is essential and that has not always been wellunderstood. "With Florez the logic of the Program can advance in the intervention with crop substitution projects in territories where the State is fully able to sustain a project and that Defense does not leave theterritory".

The relationship with the military

Traditionally, one of the problems Consolidation has had is that the military come with theProgram to provide security, but even if the guerrillas explode a pipeline they abandon the fieldto go and contain the other threat, leaving the program and its manual eradicators under greatvulnerability. In fact 41 manual eradicators have died working for the State by the antipersonnelmines laid by the guerrillas.

Other people consulted by La Silla have a contrary position. They believe that in spite of the factthat Florez has never been taken advantage of the reputation of his dad and has worked hard tocarve out his own path, in the office of Consolidation it is clear that in this case, he is soappointed because Pinzón has insisted on his designation and with this, the only thing that will be achieved is to strengthen the interference that Defense already has in the program.

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"Pinzón with the argument to improve the 'efficiency' and execution of public spending, wants to put people of his influence and make an appendix of the consolidation within the line of Integral Action," saida source who knows the Program inside. (The Chair has called the Minister for the past week but did notmanage to talk to him).

In fact, since the start of the program there has been a power struggle between the sector that consideredthat consolidation should have a logic eminently civil and to which President Santos belonged, and themilitary who have tried to maintain control over resources and the orientation of program as part of whatused to be called 'psychological operations'. Actually, before Balcázar found out they were going to firehim, Pinzón was already interviewing candidates to succeed him in his office. In the end, he failed tomake his share because the U Party was ahead of him.

Then, while the director of the DPS Bruce MacMaster, who is the head of the entire area of socialinvestment of this Government, was saying last week in meetings in the United States - in the Congressand in the OAS – that the consolidation program is in a transition process to be truly the civil version of the presence of the State in conflictive regions, in practice, the appointment of Flórez will only strengthenthe umbilical cord with the military sector.

Ultimately, beyond Flórez’ appointment, the question remains the same: Will Santos sacrifice this program, which is essential to both, land restitution and reparation to victims, to consolidate peace if theguerrillas finally someday leave the guns?