U.S. suspends intel aid to Colombia

For all the praise surrounding Colombian president Alvaro Uribe what is often overlooked are the corruption problems that has hampered his administration. One of these is the serious accusation against Colombia’s intelligence agency (DAS, in Spanish) of illegally wiretapping and spying on politicians, journalists, and judges. The chuzadas has even caught the attention of allies in Washington and has led to a major decision from the White House.

According to U.S. ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield the U.S. will temporarily cut economic aid to the DAS. Though he admitted that authorities where looking into whether the agency “engaged in illicit activities” Brownfield also noted that orders were made to shift aid from the DAS to the Colombian police and Prosecutor General’s Office. The ambassador added that the chuzadas scandal was hurting U.S.-Colombia relations yet left the door open for a renewal for aid if Colombian intelligence were to be reorganized.

The Uribe administration replied by emphatically denying the wiretapping allegations though one local news network added fuel to the fire:

Colombian news source CM& claimed to have access to documents proving that information collected through the surveillance and wiretapping of judges, journalists and politicians conducted by security agency DAS was passed on to members of the government…

Among the documents is allegedly a file labeled "President Uribe," which was used by the DAS officials to collate "documents of interest to the Colombian president."

A second document allegedly shows evidence of the surveillance of journalist Holman Morris by the security agency, including an apparently illegally-obtained email written by Morris.

Opponents to the Uribe administration have not been immune to accusations of corruption; charges may be brought against Sen. Piedad Cordoba for allegedly overstepping her bounds as a hostage negotiator with the FARC.

Image- Tribuna Latina (DAS headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Colombia Reports, Caracol, El Tiempo, RCN Radio, El Espectador