Carlos Mendez

General Carlos Alberto Méndez Nieto (1947-2017) was a Colombian Army general and longtime commander of the Third Division. He served in the Colombian conflict.

Childhood

Carlos Alberto was born to Carlos Enrique Méndez Hernandez (1919-2011) and Ana Maria Nieto Berrio (1917-1971) in the Cundinamarca Department.

Career

He joined the Colombian Army in 1965 at 18. According to El Tiempo, under his command, 130 guerrillas and paramilitaries were killed or captured. Including during some operations against crime and drug trafficking. He was part of a 12-member delegation of military personnel traveling between military bases near the Anchicayá reservoir. They were ambushed by the 30th Front of the FARC, which had makeshift dynamite explosives that they remotely detonated. Méndez and two other officers were wounded but survived as they were flown by helicopter to Third Division headquarters in Cali. where 62 people were kidnapped. General Méndez was involved in the controversy due to his stance that military commanders had been unfairly blamed for the kidnapping. He ordered Canal to send documents to the Attorney General's Office and Inspector General's Office to prove that they had not been negligent. He himself speculated that this stance may have displeased some political authorities, suggesting to the media that his support for Albán may have made him politically inconvenient.

He passed away in 2017 and received a military funeral for his service.