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Colombia defense minister plays down army discontent

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Colombia's defense minister on Thursday downplayed fears that military discontent would spread after the arrest of a colonel and the departure of two generals critical of the government.

Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez said recent criticism by high-ranking officers about the government's handling of a hostage crisis involving leftist guerrillas was not "saber-rattling" and posed no threat to Colombia's democracy.

"On the contrary, there is a great respect for institutions in the country," Ramirez said.

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Colombia's military has largely stayed out of the South American country's politics, and there were no indications that the discontent -- culminating in the arrest Wednesday of Lt. Col. Augusto Lora of the Cali-based Third Brigade -- went beyond words.

Military police took Lora into custody after he angrily criticized President Andres Pastrana's government during a tribute to his former commander, a general who resigned a week earlier.

In speech during the tribute to Gen. Jaime Canal -- the Third Brigade commander who stepped down to protest government instructions that forced him to halt pursuit of a group of guerrilla hostage takers -- Lora said the military had been humiliated.

Canal announced his resignation Nov. 3, two days after pressure from his troops forced the leftist National Liberation Army, or ELN, to free nearly two dozen Cali residents whom the rebels kidnapped in September.

The government contends a military pullback was necessary to protect the freed hostages. Canal complained his men were on the verge of capturing or killing the rebels, who escaped into the mountains near Cali, the country's third largest city.

Following Canal's public grousing, his commanding officer, Cali-based Third Division chief Gen. Carlos Mendez, was fired. In an interview Thursday in Cali's El Pais newspaper, Mendez said he was being treated like "trash."

Pastrana has faced military discontent before over his handling of relations with leftist guerrillas who are waging a 36-year war.

Ramirez's predecessor, former Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda, resigned last year to protest Pastrana's concessions in peace talks with the country's largest guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Several generals tendered symbolic resignations in solidarity with Lloreda.

Pastrana is trying to begin parallel peace with the ELN, the smaller of the two rebel forces.

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