BOGOTÁ (AFP) – Colombia’s government on Wednesday fired the country’s police chief Henry Sanabria, weeks after the police chief revealed he used exorcism and prayer to help him tackle crime and pursue drug lords.
Sanabria sparked a scandal in mid-March when he told an interviewer that he and other police officials were performing exorcisms to snag drug traffickers.
During the interview his office appeared cluttered with religious symbols.
“I appreciate General Henry Sanabria’s hard work” for the Colombian police, leftist President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter, without giving details about why he was removed from his post.
A police official speaking on condition of anonymity to a local media outlet said Sanabria, who took over as chief in August 2022, has been urging his subordinates to attend religious retreats. Sanabria was recently implicated for negligence after a violent protest against an oil company in which two people died and 78 law enforcement officials were held hostage for days by protesters.
According to a government official, Sanabria’s ouster was not “based on this operation” or his religious beliefs.
Sanabria will be replaced by retired general William Salamanca, who has been serving as consul general in Miami.
The outgoing chief told Semana magazine last month that exorcism and other religious practices have helped the police throughout the last 50 years of armed conflict, including police operations in which notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993.
He said in one operation a police officer had been able to kill a criminal by “praying while shooting”.
