President Alvaro Uribe rejected allegations in a leaked CIA report that his army chief collaborated extensively with right-wing militias accused of some of the worst atrocities in Colombia's long-running civil conflict.
In a front-page story on Sunday, the Los Angeles Times cited what it called a new CIA intelligence report linking General Mario Montoya, a close ally of the president, to a paramilitary group headed by one of the nation's biggest drug traffickers, whose extradition has been requested by the US.
The CIA document, which according to the newspaper was based on intelligence gathered by an allied Western agency, said that as head of the army's 4th brigade Montoya worked with the militia to carry out a deadly raid in a poor neighborhood in the city of Medellin in 2002.
At least 14 people were killed and several more believed disappeared during the high-profile sweep known as Operation Orion, which was heralded as a campaign to eliminate rebel influence in the crime-infested shantytowns ringing Colombia's second-largest city, but also cleared the way for the militias to gain control of the city's lucrative cocaine trade.
In a statement on Sunday, Uribe said the "Colombian government rejects the accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies" against Montoya "through press leaks without any evidence having previously been presented to Colombia's government or justice system."
In an interview published on Sunday on the Web site of newspaper El Tiempo, Montoya denied what he called baseless assertions contained in the Times article and challenged the "newspaper, the CIA or any other intelligence agency, if they have evidence against me, to present it to Colombian authorities so I can be investigated."
Human rights groups criticized Uribe's dismissal of the allegations against his loyal adviser.
"These allegations are consistent with the record of many Colombian military units, which have historically tolerated and supported paramilitaries," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Washington-based Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mail.
"Instead of rejecting the allegations out of hand, Uribe should take them seriously and call for a thorough investigation in the civilian justice system," he said.
Montoya, 57, who rose through the ranks of the army, is the highest ranking Colombian official yet to be touched by the widening paramilitary scandal, which has rocked the US-backed Uribe government and led to the arrest so far of eight pro-government congressmen and a governor, and forced the resignation of the nation's foreign minister.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
RSS