Colombia’s Minster of Interior and Justice, Germán Vargas Lleras, has proposed declasifying secret intelligence agency reports on illegal espionage against politicians, judges, journalists, and human rights activists, EFE reports.
Mary Cuddehe, a U.S. journalist, was offered $20,000 to spy on plaintiffs in one of the biggest environmental lawsuits in Ecuador's history, Cuddehe revealed in a first-person account published in the Atlantic.
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.
“Betrayed” is the work used in an editorial by the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York, El Diario-La Prensa, to describe sentiment in the newsroom after one of its journalist pleaded guilty to being part of a Russian spy ring.
Vicky Peláez and her husband already are in Russia after being deported along with eight others who admitted they were undercover Russian agents, reported RPP.
Vicky Peláez will be placed under house arrest and be forced to wear an electronic monitor, while the other nine suspects arrested for spying for Russia remain in custody, reported Reuters. Bail for the Peruvian journalist was set at $250,000, and she could be released as soon as next week, added El Comercio.
Vicky Peláez, a Peruvian journalist based in New York, is among 10 people the United States has arrested and accused of being secret agents for Russia, reported the Associated Press. The network of informants supposedly was dedicated to recruiting political sources and compiling secret information to send to Moscow, added El País.
Wiretaps conducted by Colombian intelligence agents on judges, journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders have put more pressure on President Álvaro Uribe to be accountable. Uribe was summoned this week to testify about any possible role or knowledge he had of the wiretaps. He publicly denied claims made by the prosecutor handling the case who suggested that the president's office had leaked the press information in order to discredit the Supreme Court, CM& and El Colombiano report.
A report in Colombia’s Semana magazine alleging that more than two dozen national and international journalists were spied on by Army intelligence officials has led to uproar and calls for further investigations.
Illegal espionage of journalists and other public personalities, including magistrates and politicians, seems to have another chapter in Colombia after almost a decade ago