Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04BOGOTA11758
2004-11-02 18:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bogota
Cable title:  

URIBE RETIRES ARMY COMMANDER, RETAINS REST OF HIGH

Tags:  ASEC PREL PINR CO MOPS 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 011758 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2014
TAGS: ASEC PREL PINR CO MOPS
SUBJECT: URIBE RETIRES ARMY COMMANDER, RETAINS REST OF HIGH
COMMAND

Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d)

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 011758

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2014
TAGS: ASEC PREL PINR CO MOPS
SUBJECT: URIBE RETIRES ARMY COMMANDER, RETAINS REST OF HIGH
COMMAND

Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, for reasons
1.4 (b) and (d)

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) On November 10, Minister of Defense Uribe announced
changes to the Armed Forces high command: Armed Forces
Commander General Ospina and all the service chiefs except
Army Commander Major General Carreno will remain in their
positions. Carreno will retire. Joint Task Force Omega
Commander Major General Castellanos will replace Carreno and
Director of Operations of the Joint Staff Major General
Fracica will replace Castellanos. Embassy has good relations
with the commanders who will remain, as well as with
Castellanos. The choice of Castellanos was a victory for
jointness and cooperation among services, a high Embassy
priority. Fracica is an aggressive, results-oriented
commander but has sometimes been reluctant to work closely
with us and tends to be hard on his subordinates. End
Summary.

--------------
Preliminary Changes Announced
--------------


2. (C) On November 10, President Uribe announced preliminary
changes to the Armed Forces High Command. Armed Forces
Commander General Ospina, Navy Commander Admiral Soto, Air
Force Commander Major General Lesmez, Police Commander Major
General Castro, and Chief of the Joint Staff Major General
Padilla will remain in their current positions. Army
Commander Major General Carreno will retire. Joint Task
Force Omega (JTFO) Commander Major General Castellanos,
currently in charge of Plan Patriota, will replace Carreno.
Director of Operations of the Joint Staff Major General
Fracica will replace Castellanos as JTFO Commander. The
deputy commanders of all three services are expected to
retire. Changes to lower level officers will be announced
later in the year or in January.

--------------
Focus on Results
--------------


3. (C) President Uribe's decision to keep Ospina and all but
one of the service commanders indicates his satisfaction with
their results and trusts them to continue to deliver. We
enjoy excellent relations with Soto, Lesmez, and Ospina.


4. (C) Carreno's departure was a victory for MOD Uribe, who
had to convince President Uribe to replace the aggressive but
volatile and Army-centric Carreno. His departure should
alleviate counterproductive inter-service competition. In
contrast to Carreno, Castellanos is skilled at joint
operations and his appointment to Army Commander should close
the breach between the Army and the rest of the services,
including the police. We also expect our relationship with
the Army to improve. While Carreno was often reluctant to
share information with us, Castellanos has been a valuable
interlocutor throughout his time as JTFO Commander and in his
prior position as the Army's 5th Division Commander.

--------------
Plan Patriota Loses Talented Leader
--------------


5. (C) Castellanos showed impressive results in leading Plan
Patriota Phase 2A in Cundinamarca Department and the
still-ongoing Phase 2B in southeastern Colombia. Fracica had
been angling for several months for the JTFO command and is
already well up to speed on Plan Patriota. However, he is
hard on his subordinates and can be slow to use actionable
intelligence. As Joint Staff Director for Intelligence, he
was sometimes difficult for us to work with and made public
remarks critical of the U.S.
WOOD