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.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
RSS