CIA links Colombian army chief to paramilitaries

An article in Sunday’s edition of the Los Angeles Times cites U.S. intelligence information linking the head of Colombia’s armed forces (image) to right-wing paramilitary groups. The report cites recent CIA data suggesting that:

“(Army chief General Mario) Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and conducted a military operation in 2002 to eliminate Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin, a city in northwestern Colombia that has been a center of the drug trade.

At least 14 people were killed during the operation, and opponents of Uribe charge that dozens more disappeared in its aftermath”.

A CIA spokesman did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the report, though a communiqué from the Colombian government categorically denied any ties between General Montoya and paramilitary groups.

On a related note, Colombia’s former intelligence chief was freed “on procedural grounds” after being accused of aiding paramilitaries during his time as head of the DAS.

Links- Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, ABC News, International Herald Tribune, Al Jazeera

Image- School of the Americas Watch