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Colombia THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMED FORCES
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Figure 10. Command Structure of the Armed Forces, 1988
The Command Structure
According to the Constitution, the president of the
republic
serves as commander in chief of the country's military and
police
forces. The president appoints the armed forces' highest
ranking
officer (by tradition an army general) to serve as head of
the
Ministry of National Defense. During the 1980s, the
minister of
national defense held both administrative and operational
authority
over the three armed services and the National Police. As
authorized by the minister of national defense, military
operations
were excuted under the mandate of the General Command of
the
Military Forces. In 1988 General Oscar Botero Restrepo
served as
commander general of the military forces
(see
fig. 10).
Reflecting the armed forces' professed tradition of
political
neutrality, the head of the Ministry of National Defense,
unlike
other cabinet ministers, did not represent a political
party. In
1986 President Barco appointed General Samudio as minister
of
national defense. The selection of Samudio, who previously
had
served as the commander general of the military forces
and, before
that, as commander of the National Army, provoked a minor
crisis
within the armed forces. Several higher-ranking officers
were
passed over for the post, and most were consequently
obliged to
retire from active duty. All but one of these officers,
General
Manuel Jaime Guerrero Paz, were retired. In November 1988,
Guerrero
Paz, the commander general of the military forces,
replaced Samudio
as minister of national defense.
The executive branch created the National Security
Council,
also known as the Superior Council of National Defense, in
the
early 1980s to oversee defense policies. The council
tended to
further institutionalize access for the military by
including the
commander general of the military forces in national
security
decision making to some degree. Although it had a
nonliberative
role in policy making, the council gave the armed forces
an
important voice in areas of specific concern to them, such
as the
military budget, or matters of internal security or
foreign policy,
such as the border conflict with Venezuela and relations
with Cuba.
Data as of December 1988
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