Relations between Colombia and Israel remain quite tense, after President Gustavo Petro ordered to suspend the purchase of weapons from that country. The drastic decision was confirmed through his personal account, where he described the situation in Gaza as a genocide.
Given these statements, General Guillermo León, former commander of the Colombian Air Force, and president of Acore, spoke exclusively with Vicky in SEMANA and assured that this determination would have a negative impact on the Air Force.
“We have a fleet that is close to leaving due to the completion of its useful life cycle period. With this decision, what would be accelerating the departure of this team. First of all, The Air Force has already announced that three planes left service because they reached their maximum ceiling”, initially stated.
Then, he added: “The other planes would be in a condition of not having a way to stay in flight because there will be no flow of spare parts. The maintenance contract would not continue if it were broken and, of course, the fleet would be grounded. “We still don’t know anything about the replacement team.”
The former uniformed man, likewise, pointed out that the different decisions that the current government is making are weakening the armed forces. Likewise, he pointed out that control is being lost in some areas of the national territory.
“We all want peace, but today we see a deterioration and setback in the national territory. We feel that our soldiers are exposed. We see that, within the policy of 'total peace', the forcefulness of public force has been limited and that must be corrected”, he stated.
General León finally took advantage of the dialogue with this media to make a call to President Petro, since he stressed that he must govern not only for the people who voted for him, but for all Colombians.
What weapons does Colombia buy from Israel?
The Center for Military Education and the Colombian Military Industry (Indumil) pointed out that the National Army, the National Police and the CTI of the Prosecutor's Office use weapons produced by Israel with manufacturing at Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). Some of these are:
- Jericho semi-automatic pistol, the X95 rifle
- Galil rifles
- Nimrod and Spike anti-tank missiles
- Atmos self-propelled gun system
- Fleet of 24 Kfir combat aircraft that Colombia acquired in the nineties
