LatinNews Daily Report - 13 August 2013

SECURITY | Military and police command shakeup. On 12 August Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos replaced the country’s entire military and police command, the second major shake-up since September 2011. Under the latest changes, which take place as the administration enters its fourth and final year, President Santos appointed Major General Leonardo Barrero as new commander-in-chief of the armed forces, replacing General Alejandro Navas. Major General Hugo Acosta is the new head of the joint general staff of the armed forces; Major General Juan Pablo Rodríguez is the new commander of army; Rear Admiral Hernando Wills is the new commander of the navy; and Major General Guillermo León is the now commander of the air force. Santos also named Major General Rodolfo Palomino as the new national police chief – the third national police chief since Santos took office in 2010 – replacing José Roberto León Riaño, who took up the post after General Oscar Naranjo quit in June 2012. According to the local investigative weekly Semana, the changes were triggered in part by a bid to replace General Sergio Mantilla as army commander. Mantilla, who in a recent interview said that regardless of the peace talks the  Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrillas would soon be defeated, was reportedly considered an obstacle to the peace talks currently underway in Havana, Cuba, between the government and the Farc, Colombia’s main leftist guerrilla group.