The Prosecutor General’s Office has been asked to open an investigation into the funding of local politicians by foreign governments, as well as the influence of paramilitaries in the state.
Newspaper El Espectador reports that statements from officials of Colombia’s intelligence agency, DAS, who were implicated in the “chuzadas” political persecution scandal, have prompted the Inspector General’s Office to demand an investigation into an array of allegations focused on paramilitary infiltration in DAS and illegal funding of local politicians by foreign entities, namely, the Venezuelan petrochemical company Monómeros.
Germán Albeiro Ospina, the former head of the National Monitoring Group of the DAS, called for the investigation based on the above allegations, and pointed out that two former officials who were following the wife of former congressman Gustavo Petro were killed.
Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez requested an investigation into paramilitary infiltration throughout the DAS, as denounced by former agency deputy director Jose Miguel Narvaez.
Allegedly, agents within the DAS sold records, and managed the theft and killings of people within the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the accusations, murders were even ordered within the intelligence agency, which was being effectively controlled by AUC commander Carlos Mario Jimenez, alias “Macaco.”
In order to investigate the accusations, the Inspector General’s Office demands access to the testimonies of the five officials, as well as other evidence which occurred within the context of illegal surveillance and interception.
