Espionage against journalists and politicians shakes the Colombian Army and puts uribismo in check | International

A plot of espionage against journalists, foreign correspondents, politicians and human rights lawyers. The Colombian Army carried out monitoring of more than 130 people between February and December of last year with the logistical and financial support of a US intelligence agency, according to a complaint from one of the soldiers involved. The reports, published by the magazine Week, collect the profiles of professionals who, due to the nature of their own work, usually have access to confidential information. Those folders contain phone numbers, “residence and work addresses, emails, friends, family, children, colleagues, contacts, traffic violations and even polling places,” the publication details.

The espionage activities, carried out through different computer tools, coincide with the term of command of the Army of General Nicacio Martínez Espinel, who left office at the end of December for “family reasons”, then reported President Iván Duque. This military command was pointed out just a year ago by information from The New York TImes, that revealed the return of the land force to a perverse practice that, in the past decade, gave rise to thousands of extrajudicial executions. That is, an internal system of benefits and incentives to improve results, the origin of the scandal of the so-called false positives, murders of civilians, mostly peasants, later presented as guerrillas killed in combat.

The one who at that time was a correspondent for The New York TimesNicholas Casey was one of the first victims of these follow-ups. The report prepared by the military includes possible sources, photos of his personal and professional contacts, and links him to “FARC areas of influence.” After him, other journalists from the United States or media correspondents from that country were included. Among them, Juan Forero, veteran reporter today head of the office of The Wall Street Journal. His case also demonstrates the null rigor of these follow-ups. Along with his data, he explains Week, a photograph of his father appears. Also listed in the folders are John Otis, Latin American correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR); Stephen Ferry, renowned independent photographer, or photojournalist Lindsay Addario, who made a report on the National Liberation Army (ELN). Colombians Daniel Coronell, president of Univisión news, Yolanda Ruiz, of RCN Radio, María Alejandra Villamizar, analyst of Noticias Caracol, Gina Morelo, of Time, or Ignacio Gómez, from Noticias Uno.

This espionage network and the use of public resources in these activities is especially serious in Colombia, a country that has just come out of a war with the FARC, but where several criminal groups and dissidents of the former guerrilla continue to operate and which is the world producer of coca. These “special jobs”, carried out mainly by cyber intelligence units, responded to the chain of command. Publications about the Army angered Martínez Espinel, who was appointed head of the Army by Duque in late 2018. In the transition between the mandate Juan Manuel Santos – who promoted the peace process and achieved the demobilization of the FARC – and the current president, the most radical wing of the Democratic Center, the party of former President Álvaro Uribe, ensured control of the Defense area and the Armed Forces Minister Guillermo Botero had to resign at the end of last year after hiding the death of at least eight minors in a bombardment of FARC dissidents, and then some of the most questioned pieces of the Armed Forces began to fall.

Surveillance operations also targeted politicians and human rights lawyers. Among them, none other than Jorge Mario Eastman, who was former Deputy Minister of Defense and until a year ago Secretary General of the Presidency. Or the director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW), José Miguel Vivanco, who has always been very involved with clarifying the truth in investigations related to false positives. “The serious allegations that the Colombian Army carries out illegal interceptions and produces intelligence on journalists, politicians and human rights lawyers threaten democracy and the rule of law,” Vivanco told EL PAÍS. “There must be serious and forceful investigations that show credible results for the citizenry. Otherwise, the country runs a serious risk of these practices becoming normalized.” The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) strongly condemned that plot. “Unacceptable that in Colombia the practices of profiling and surveillance of journalists by state intelligence agencies remain. These are the actions of authoritarian regimes against the right to information. “

The current Defense Minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, came out of these accusations with some announcements. First, it removed 11 officers from active duty and announced that a brigadier general requested their voluntary removal from service. “In reference to the complaints that were known a few months ago about alleged irregular use of military intelligence capabilities and following the institutional policy of zero tolerance with the execution of conduct outside the law, the Ministry of National Defense allows itself to communicate that From the moment the alleged facts were known, the measures were taken and the corresponding actions were carried out in accordance with the law, ”his department reported. The General Command of the Military Forces also opened a “disciplinary investigation and in turn delegated to the General Inspection of the Military Forces to carry out a verification of processes and protocols that intelligence must comply with.”

In any case, the seriousness of the scandal in a country already accustomed to shocked calls or interceptions is likely to generate a political earthquake that shakes the foundations, mainly, of the ruling party, the Democratic Center and that political current referred to in the ex-president Uribe, the so-called uribismo.

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