"The secret folders": a new plot of military espionage in Colombia is revealed
Mission Truth
May 9 · 6 min read
Lawyers in Colombia demand disciplinary and judicial sanctions against officers of the Colombian army. Picture: Between Review
It is not the first time that a pot has been uncovered about the excessive and illegal espionage by the Colombian authorities on part of the population.
In 2014, Semana magazine published an investigation into the espionage process carried out by the US intelligence agencies and high command of the Colombian army in the peace negotiations in Havana, in order not only to obtain advantageous information but also to thwart the cause. of conciliation and peace.
A more recent example, in March of this year, the Colombian army itself, through its Twitter account, created a monitoring list , called “Opposition”, which included politicians, journalists, organizations, parties and the media in Colombia and a Venezuelan environment: Mission Truth .
After Colombian journalists included in that virtual list complained about it, contesting why, it was eliminated by the authorities.
More recently, on May 1, the same Semana magazine revealed the plot of " The Secret Folders ."
In general terms, it is, again, a computer surveillance operation carried out by the Colombian Army between 2019 and 2020, with General Nicacio Martínez as the head of the institution. Such investigation has a compilation from multiple sources, which includes anonymous interviews, documents, reports and "profiles" of at least 130 people from different unions and nationalities, including politicians, journalists and trade unionists.
The controversy
Among the spies are some American journalists who worked in Colombia. The most notorious case was that of the New York Times (NYT) journalist , Nicholas Casey, who in May 2019 published an investigation into extrajudicial executions, better known as the "false positives", by the Colombian military to obtain benefits for number of casualties.
These murders were against civilians, among them the most destitute rural population in the country, who were disguised in guerrilla uniforms to increase the list of casualties due to war, a typical policy of the administration of today's senator and head of the Democratic Center party, Álvaro Uribe Velez.
Those newspaper articles about "false positives" were the excuse to start collecting Casey's personal data, in addition to a permanent follow-up to his daily routine, contacts, family and more, there were intimidating actions towards the journalist. So much so, that the Congressmen of the Democratic Center themselves identified Casey as a "protector" of terrorism and a defamer of Colombian institutions.
Later, in May of last year, Casey left Colombia amid an atmosphere of anger and contradictions. Although the risk in which he was involved after these accusations from the uribista clan was notorious, the publication of his article " Images contradict the United States' claim that Nicolás Maduro burned the aid convoy ", in relation to the events surrounding the failed entry of "humanitarian aid" by the mercenary groups of Juan Guaidó into Venezuela (a rarity on the part of Casey and the NYT), he was able to add to this environment of threats.
Then, at the time, US Senator Patrick Leahy, through his Twitter account , called on the Duque government to "immediately demand proof of the unsubstantiated accusation of a Colombian senator against a journalist from the New York Times " .
More than a complaint to an accusation without evidence, Leahy intercedes simply because Colombia, as a good satellite, must stay in the lane of American interests. That Colombians publicly criticize an American, undermining the legitimacy of a corporate environment that often reverberates as an unofficial spokesman for Washington's foreign policy? No way .
Computer surveillance of journalists and politicians goes beyond military intelligence work under Colombian law. Image: Week
Due to the uncovering of the pot on computer espionage, Leahy expressed his intention in a threatening tone to Semana to review the US military financial assistance to Colombia, because those resources, that is, the taxpayers' money, are not supposed to be counterproductive Americans, and also, according to him, " should never be used for illegal activities ."
The Colombian magazine, through an anonymous source, explains that some of those Colombian soldiers took a large part of that money and, in parallel, made rigged reports in order to carry out a kind of accountability to the Americans.
In addition to this, the espionage was also done at home. Colombian journalists also have their "profile".
The most famous case in this espionage condemnation was that of the renowned Colombian journalist María Alejandra Villamizar, with a long history in different media and a prolonged participation in the process of conversations for peace in Colombia.
More than 12 pages collected with personal, family information, your phone contacts, material goods and more. Upon learning of this, Villamizar raised a series of questions in Noticias Caracol : Who ordered these follow-ups and who was this information for?
This Saturday, May 2, Iván Duque's lukewarm response was immediate: of course, he assumed a position of rejection of these monitoring practices, since a large package of "aid" to Colombia approved by the Congress of States is at stake. United for this year of about 448 million dollars .
Duque is left to answer the questions raised last week in a public letter by the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), backed by more than a hundred journalists on the case of "the secret folders." To date, they are still waiting.
Computer paramilitarism is outlined
From a legal point of view, Colombian experts in constitutional matters in his country explain how serious this espionage scandal is. Here we point out some keys in this regard by Jorge Enrique Ibañez , a specialist in Colombian constitutional law:
There are limits to strategic intelligence, defined within the framework of respect for Human Rights and in the prevention of external or internal threats that may affect national security. In this stalking operation, there were no limits on the methodology for selecting profiles and gathering information, incurring harassment and persecution.
Those who enjoy constitutional protection cannot be a target for espionage, and this is the case of foreign journalists as correspondents; Casey's case was paradoxical both because of his nationality and because of his publication, as he fell into a state of extreme risk due to the accusations of uribismo.
Journalists and lawyers have the right to protect their source of information, that is, they cannot be targeted by intelligence agencies, contrary to what the "secret folders" reveal.
In the profiles prepared by these espionage groups, they show an inadequate characterization of the information, violating the private sphere of people outside the environment. In fact, everything that can be collected from sources is valid, however, the use of this information must be responsible.
The custom of military espionage in Colombia is more than evident, to the dissident press above all and beyond the national and foreign corporate media, thanks to the reinforcement of these practices in the Uribe government, and now, with the government of Iván Duque , indicated as the maximum person in charge in the scandal.
In fact, the “José Alvear Restrepo” Lawyers' Collective demanded that the Colombian army officers responsible for the computer espionage plot be disciplined and judicially sanctioned.
Most of the spies were journalists, politicians, and trade unionists. Image: Week
It is a fresh example how Uribe, during his presidential term, used the Administrative Security Department (DAS) with the support of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to intercept calls, harass and illegally follow journalists, magistrates, opposing political figures to uribismo, and even to UN rapporteurs , thus distorting the purpose of intelligence in favor of the narco-paramilitary policy of the leaders of today's Democratic Center.
As an extremely dangerous déjá vú , this practice indicates another ominous chapter of the computer paramilitarism that was reactivated, evidently, in the political disaster that pivots President Iván Duque, with Álvaro Uribe Vélez in the shadows.
It would be interesting for some diligent Colombian or American journalist to do an important journalistic exercise about the current "Operation Gideon" in which there was joint participation by the DEA, the anti-drug agency, and the Duque government in Colombia. Could they investigate this without being watched and, furthermore, intimidated?
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