Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced on Tuesday the “serious” disappearance of nearly two million weapons and ammunition from two military bases, which he attributed to trafficking networks linked to Colombian and foreign illegal groups, which “probably” reached Haiti.

The president, through a post on X (formerly Twitter), explained that the weapons that were stolen were destined for sub-demanders such as armed groups in Colombia, and probably foreign conflicts, such as those in Haiti.

An estimated total of 500 RPG grenades, anti-tank missiles type Spike and Nimrod (of Israeli manufacture), RPG rockets, among thousands of other ammunition and explosives were looted from military bases in Tolemaida and La Guajira. “For a long time, there have been networks integrated by people from the military and civilians dedicated to massive arms trafficking,” Petro explained.

Trafficking networks implicated in Colombia’s weapons theft

The disappearance of the weaponry was detected during an inventory inspection. Defense Minister Iván Velásquez and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Helder Giraldo Bonilla, also linked the theft to armed conflicts in the Caribbean country Haiti, which is only seven hours away by speedboat from the La Guajira military base.

Recently in Colombia, the security forces have been tainted by scandals of corruption and complicity with criminal structures and guerrilla groups, prompting the president, in an intervention on March 30 at the Narino Palace, to emphasize: “It was essential that the national public knew about these facts, because we need, undoubtedly, to completely separate the Armed Forces, as well as any other branch of the public power, from any act of corruption.”

Of the alarming figure, 817,864 pieces would correspond to what was detected in Tolemaida, and 1,215,749 to what was checked in La Guajira. The president also pointed out that these weapons are sold to armed groups in Colombia and offered in international smuggling networks.