Santoyo case brings promotion system into question
The investigation against retired Police General Mauricio Santoyo, which originated in a US court, brings another issue into question: the promotion system within the Military and the Police.
Beyond Santoyo’s alleged ties to paramilitaries and the gang known as ‘la Oficina’, the controversy is focused on his appointment as former President Alvaro Uribe’s security chief after he had already been questioned for illegal wiretappings and reports of forced disappearances during his time as head of Antioquia’s Gaula.
The investigation has been ongoing for a year and a half Colombia’s Police Force and the Attorney General have been fully cooperative with U.S. authorities. Santoyo is being accused of cooperating with drug traffickers and paramilitaries but an arrest warrant has not been issued yet. Regional director of the DEA, Jay Bergman, said authorities will “continue surveillance until we can make a formal charge.”
