Colombia Army general resigns amid embezzlement scandal
Colombia Army general resigns amid embezzlement scandal
Feb 17, 2014 posted by Alexandra Jolly
Colombian Army general implicated in revelations of widespread defense contracting embezzlement formally resigned Monday.
Minister of Defense Juan Carlos Pinzon announced via Twitter early Monday that he has accepted the resignation of Army General Javier Rey Navas, one of various top-level military officials allegedly involved in an emerging corruption scandal.
The tweet expressed the minister’s “personal regret at the departure of a great soldier” but doesn’t mention the circumstances surrounding the former general’s departure.
Rey, who served as the Chief of the Joint Military Command, was one of a number of high-ranking armed servicemen named in recordings published Sunday by the Semana magazine, indicating that members of the Colombian Army siphoned millions of dollars in defense contracts. In many cases, the report concluded, the embezzled funds were used to assure the continued silence of soldiers convicted in relation to the military’s “false positives” practice, in which soldiers were offered bonuses and paid vacation in exchange for murdering civilians and dressing their bodies up like rebel insurgents.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/resignation-army-general-named-embezzlement-scandal/