After 42 years of active service, he retired from the Army. He studied military sciences at the General José María Córdova Military Cadet School, specialized in public administration and senior management, and earned an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Sergio Arboleda. Director of the Center for Strategic Regional Studies at the same university. Senior security advisor for the Governor’s Office of Cundinamarca. An expert in strategy, security, and national defense, he has been an academic advisor on economics for the Continental Defense course at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C. As general commander of the military forces in 2003, he planned and executed Plan Patriota, which dealt heavy blows to illegal armed groups. He was the commander of the National Army between 1998 and 2002, when he led the restructuring of the armed forces. He has been ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the governments of South Korea and the Philippines, deputy minister of defense, and director of Colombia’s Escuela Superior de Guerra. He participated at the Negotiation Table as a national government plenipotentiary.
