Colombia’s disgraced intelligence agency must be replaced by a smaller, better controlled spy service that will respect citizens’ rights and not bear the tainted name “DAS,” the chief of the agency said.
The Administrative Security Department, or DAS by its Spanish initials, has been racked by scandals including allegations of illegal wiretapping of judges, journalists and opposition politicians.
Felipe Munoz, head of the agency for the last 16 months, wants Congress to dismantle the department and create a new service with a tighter handle on its agents.
“It will not be called the DAS, because that brand has been completely devalued,” Munoz said in an interview.
The revamping of its intelligence services could help Colombia clinch a pending trade pact with the US. Democrats in the US Congress say Colombia must do more to protect human rights before they approve the deal.
Scores of former agents are being investigated as headlines in the local press describe “political warfare” waged by the DAS against critics of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Washington’s key military ally in South America.
Lack of good pay and professional incentives at the DAS fostered corruption at the agency, Munoz said.
The US has cut off aid to the agency amid allegations that Uribe’s advisors directed some of the abuses from the presidential palace.
Munoz said the agency has been saddled with extraneous tasks such as immigration control, criminal investigations and providing a corps of poorly paid body guards to protect people under threat.
About 6,000 people work for DAS, but only 1 out of 7 does intelligence-related work, the spy chief said. He envisions an agency with 1,300 people doing intelligence work and 1,200 employees devoted to immigration control.
Lawmakers are expected to start debating the DAS restructuring bill next week. Munoz says he is lobbying to have it passed before the June 20 congressional recess.
Many of the DAS’ current tasks would be transferred to Colombia’s national police force, the attorney general’s office and private security companies, under the plan.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS