The former head of Colombia’s intelligence agency ended several years on the run and surrendered to face charges of spying on opponents of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe.
Maria del Pilar Hurtado late on Friday last week turned herself over to authorities in Panama, where she fled in 2010. She was taken on a pre-dawn flight to Bogota, where a judge ordered her to be jailed at the chief prosecutor’s office while charges are considered.
Chief prosecutor Eduardo Montealegre said Hurtado was being processed for at least five offenses that could bring 15 to 20 years in prison for a conviction. He said he would urge Hurtado to cooperate and reveal “who gave the order for the illegal wiretapping.”
The accusations against the spy chief threaten to further tarnish Uribe’s legacy. Hurtado has never implicated Uribe in any wrongdoing.
As head of the now-defunct DAS spy agency, she oversaw a scandal-ridden institution whose agents seemed unrestrained in their use of illegal wiretaps to monitor politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and even Supreme Court justices who opposed the former conservative leader.
Dozens of DAS officials, including one of Hurtado’s predecessors, have been convicted of illegal spying and providing assistance to right-wing death squads.
When Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in 2010, he immediately disbanded the DAS and pursued charges against several of its former officials.
Hurtado was granted asylum in Panama in 2010, but the country’s Supreme Court ruled last year that the decision giving her refuge was unconstitutional.
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