IPS Special — COLOMBIA: From Espionage to Sabotage

Early this year, the Colombian press reported that the Administrative Security Department (DAS), Colombia’s main intelligence agency, which answers to the president’s office, had for years been carrying out illegal wiretap activities against opposition politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and even Supreme Court judges, who were described as "targets."

The position taken by the rightwing government of Álvaro Uribe is that a few “rotten apples” took advantage of the culture of secrecy characteristic of the military and intelligence forces, and used it to their own ends. To back up that argument, administration officials point out that the list of individuals who were spied on includes high-level officials and pro-Uribe politicians. IPS investigates

COLOMBIA: Spying in the Name of ‘Democratic Security’ – Part 1
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – While the world’s attention was riveted on the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an operation was surreptitiously being carried out Jan. 19-21 at the headquarters of Colombia?s domestic intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), which answers directly to the president?s office.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47338

*****
COLOMBIA: Jaime Garzón’s Murder; No Digging Allowed ? Part 2
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – It's always the same: the TV audience is grief-stricken and indignant that he is no longer with us, but they continue to laugh along with him. Beloved Colombian comic Jaime Garzón was assassinated on Aug. 13, 1999, but he is still alive on the small screen. On each anniversary of his death, the TV newscasts replay the biting political parodies that made him one of Colombia’s best-loved television personalities.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47467

*****
COLOMBIA: From Espionage to Sabotage – and the Dirty War (Part 3)
Analysis by Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – For decades now, privacy in personal electronic communications has existed only on paper. But the most serious aspect of the espionage scandal that broke this year in Colombia lies in the use given to the information that was gathered.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48209

*****
COLOMBIA: Spying on Human Rights Defenders
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTÁ (IPS) – “Coming to Colombia is to enter a world that is always intense, captivating and heart-wrenching at the same time,” Susana Villarán, a former member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), wrote in April 2008. At the time, the former Peruvian minister was unaware that on a 2005 trip to Colombia, as IACHR Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, she was declared a “target” of intelligence operations by the Special Strategic Intelligence Group known as the G3.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48100

*****
COLOMBIA: All the President's Spies
Analysis by Javier Darío Restrepo
BOGOTA (IPS) – Colombian journalist Hollman Morris phoned an international news agency and said in an agitated voice: “I am being followed by the police.” As he left his apartment on the north side of Bogotá, he saw a police car on the other side of the street; when he reached his parents' apartment a few minutes later, to drop off his kids, another car was parked near the building. And when he reached the spot where he was planning to meet with this reporter, a third car with plainclothes police officers made it clear to him that orders had been given to follow him.
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47210

******
SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE NEW IPS GENDERWIRE:

Only about 22 percent of the voices you hear and read in the news are women’s. You can change your perspective – Read the new IPS Gender Wire.
ipsnews.net/_newsletter/genderwire.asp

DON’T MISS IPS IN-DEPTH REPORTING ON CORRUPTION.
Corruption depletes national wealth and undercuts legitimacy. Transparency International says corruption is often to blame for already limited public resources being diverted to uneconomic high-profile projects, at the expense of less spectacular but more necessary development initiatives. Civil society is finding its voice to demand that those behind corrupt acts are held accountable.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/corruption/index.asp

IPS SPECIAL COVERAGE OF ECONOMY, TRADE AND FINANCE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.
There is a global economy beyond Wall Street, and IPS shows you how it works.
www.ipsnews.net/economy.asp

Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world’s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 150 countries. Its clients include more than 3,000 media organisations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users.

IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.

Visit Inter Press Service at www.ipsnews.net