By Ingrid Bachmann
In statements to prosecutors, an ex intelligence agency offical said that President Álvaro Uribe and several of his confidants knew about the Administrative Department of Security's (DAS) wiretaps and spying on journalists, judges, opposition leaders, and human rights activists. The incriminating testimony by the former director of DAS is the first that has directly connected the president to the spy scandal, El Nuevo Herald and La Silla Vacia report.
Uribe has repeatedly denied ordering the illegal taps, but Semana magazine says the testimony shows that the orders came from the executive and that DAS was a key tool in the administration’s “war” against the Supreme Court, the opposition, and the media.
Read excerpts of the statements in Spanish on La W Radio’s website.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
