Colombia\u2019s new president Gustavo Petro wants peace. Colombia\u2019s military, the largest in Latin America, except for that of Brazil, stands in the way. It benefits from U.S. largesse while attending to U.S. needs. Its intelligence branch, discussed here, is not about peace and reconciliation.
\nThe U.S. government, militarily involved in Colombia for decades is likewise an obstacle to peace. As explained recently by analyst Hernando Calvo Ospina, military cooperation has been central to the U.S.-Colombian alliance. He details how since World War II the United States has partnered with Colombia in dominating the entire region to maintain access to strategic resources, exclude Communism, and suppress left-wing movements. Calvo Ospina mentions Colombian-U.S. drug-war operations and the two countries\u2019 addiction to military and ruling-class power. This is the setting for the intelligence operations described below.
\nColombian intelligence operations serve U.S. imperialist objectives as they target Cuba and Venezuela. Colombian governing authorities appear to have forgotten the legacy of independence hero Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar who, up against Spanish rule and U.S. pretentions, fought for Latin American unity. In 1829 he remarked that, \u201cThe United States appear to be destined by Providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.\u201d He was denouncing unencumbered U.S. license to control Spanish America, as proclaimed in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and still in force.
\nTrump-era national security advisor John Bolton recently boasted he had planned coups to unseat the Maduro government in Venezuela. Current White House advisor on Western Hemisphere affairs Juan Gonz\u00e1lez took a different tack while speaking in Colombia in August: \u201c40 years ago the United States would have done everything possible to avoid the election of Gustavo Petro and, once elected would have done everything possible to sabotage his policies.\u201d Now, says Gonz\u00e1lez, the United States wants to collaborate and \u201cnavigate that change.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Petro wants young people to choose social service and not do military service. His government will be negotiating peace with National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas. He rejects the U.S.-promoted drug war and has re-established diplomatic relations with Venezuela, the object of U.S. hybrid war. On August 12, Petro named new military chiefs and replaced 40 generals and admirals because of corruption and human rights violations.
\nThis report turns to Colombian military intelligence. The Revista Raya website, directed by Edinson Bola\u00f1os, recently published three articles on Colombian intelligence operations that began in 2016 and continued for almost six years. (See the end note for possible translations in English of \u201craya.\u201d)
\nFace-off against Cuba
\nThe first article, titled \u201cInternational Espionage: Operation Cuba,\u201d appeared on the website on August 19. One learns that, \u201cRevista Raya had access to thousands of classified Colombian military intelligence documents where evidence appears of spying on Cuban diplomats and officials, left-leaning [Colombian] political leaders, journalists, and social leaders.\u201d The folders contained \u201cprofiles of targeted personnel, photographs, videos of subjects being followed, maps, sketches and drawings.\u201d
\nAgents posing as journalists or photographers mapped routes to facilities used by diplomats. They photographed the interiors of the Cuban embassy, consulates, and diplomats\u2019 quarters, and also diplomats\u2019 automobiles and license plates. They monitored diplomats\u2019 encounters with Colombian activists and politicians. Operatives gained access to phones, computers and on-line communications.
\nThey were able to alter the text of the Cubans\u2019 email communications. Colombian intelligence operatives communicated their findings with U.S. counterparts. U.S. documents with responses and commentary show up in the files.
\nOperatives attended solidarity gatherings in Colombia and farther afield \u2013 at a Sao Paolo Forum of leftist political parties, for example. At these venues, they identified attendees, monitored conversations, gained access to email communications, and informed intelligence agencies in home countries of their citizens\u2019 participation in leftist or pro-Cuba activities. They spied on solidarity gatherings at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp near Havana.
\nPeople attending various events had their phone calls intercepted, among them: Cuban ambassador Jos\u00e9 Luis Ponce and Vice Consul Kendry Sosa, leftist senators Iv\u00e1n Cepeda and Gloria Fl\u00f3rez; Communist Party leaders Jaime Caycedo and Carlos Lozano Guill\u00e9n; and FARC lawyer Diego Mart\u00ednez. Among attendees monitored at the Sao Paolo Forum in 2019 were Communist Party member Gloria In\u00e9s Ram\u00edrez, now President Petro\u2019s labor minister, and leftist senator Piedad C\u00f3rdoba.
\nOne purpose for the phone monitoring, according to Revista Raya, was to unearth or install material suggesting that Cuban operatives were promoting the protest demonstrations that rocked Colombia in 2019 and later, and contributed to the election of President Petro. The intelligence units also sought to connect Cuba\u2019s government with leftist insurgents in Colombia, particularly the National Liberation Army (ELN).
\nAccording to documents in the report, agents \u201csewed\u201d information in the computers of ELN guerrilla leaders suggesting the \u201ccomplicity of Cuba\u2019s government with the ELN in manufacturing the violence associated with the social protests.\u201d Nothing appeared in the files indicating that Cuba\u2019s government actually did promote anti-government activities, according to Revista Raya.
\nAgents planted \u201cevidence\u201d of alleged terrorism undertaken by ELN guerrilla leader Andr\u00e9s Vanegas Londo\u00f1o, alias \u201cUriel,\u201d and sent it to Colombian prosecutors and to Interpol. They communicated his location in Choco department. Uriel died in a bombardment of his camp 20 days later, on October 25, 1920.
\nTargeting Venezuela
\nEncouraged by its U.S. partner, Colombia\u2019s government has long taken steps to destabilize Venezuelan society and government operations, and more so recently. Secret operations have taken place in Venezuela\u2019s border region with Colombia. Colombian narco-traffickers are active there, and also Colombian paramilitaries. A small U.S.-Colombian force, Operation Gideon, carried out a maritime invasion of Venezuela in 2020.
\nColombian military intelligence engaged with agencies and personnel of Venezuela\u2019s government. On August 24, Revista Raya published \u201cInternational Espionage: Objective Venezuela. The survey covers destabilization plans and monitoring of Colombian and Venezuelan politicians and Venezuelan diplomats.
\nColombia\u2019s intelligence service secreted 28 spies within various branches of Venezuela\u2019s military. As part of so-called \u201cOperation Vengeance,\u201d operatives \u201ctried to encourage the Venezuelan Army to carry out military operations against the ELN,\u201d whose detachments were active in Venezuelan territory. They created hostile pamphlets and audio recordings and attributed them to the ELN. The spies \u201ctotally infiltrated\u201d the communications of a Venezuelan press attach\u00e9 in Bogota and monitored his contacts with prominent Colombian politicians of the left. Colombian officials later expelled him.
\nCiting \u201canother hundred documents,\u201d Revista Raya shows that, during the presidency of President Iv\u00e1n Duque (2018 -2022), Colombian spies entered, photographed, and took material from the Venezuela\u2019s consulate in Cartagena. The Colombian intelligence operatives attended primarily to consul Ayskel Torres.
\nUnder \u201cOperation Sunset,\u201d they \u201cmonitored her contacts with leftist social leaders in the region and her \u201csentimental relationship\u201d with the \u201cmilitary attach\u00e9 of a Caribbean country.\u201d They were blackmailed and the latter provided a list of \u201ccooperating\u201d contacts.
\nSpying ceased after February 23, 2019, when The Maduro government broke relations with Colombia. The spies had monitored Venezuelan diplomats\u2019 communications about the safety of money and sensitive documents lodged in an Embassy strong box. After the Venezuelans had departed, spies entered the building, took photographs, opened the strong box and stole documents and money.
\nResponsibility
\nThe last section of this three-part Revista Raya series is titled \u201cInternational Espionage: Massive Profiling.\u201d Documents were cited that contained \u201ctelephone numbers, homes addresses, political preferences, work places, email addresses, nationalities, and date of identification\u201d for 450 persons. The article presents political profiles of eight individuals as examples of other profiles that were created. Dozens of images appear.
\nThe targeted individuals included \u201cpolitical, social, and union leaders and also diplomats and officials of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.\u201d Intelligence agents descended on them when they attended \u201ccommemorations and political events relating to socialist countries,\u201d or \u201cpeaceful mobilizations and \u2026 political events in Colombia.\u201d
\nThis last article in the series identifies the chief of Navy Intelligence as the individual primarily responsible for the illegal spying.
\nRear Admiral Norman Iv\u00e1n Cabrera Mart\u00ednez heads that agency now. He served as naval attach\u00e9 at the Colombian Embassy in Washington and the U.S government awarded him a Meritorious Service Medal. Cabrera Mart\u00ednez assumed his post on August 27, 2022.
\nColombian Communist Party secretary general Jaime Caycedo, the object of spying, commented to Revista Raya: \u201cWe \u2026 think this is a violation flagrant of our rights and constitutional liberties \u2026[We] attach great importance to the journalistic work you are doing. You showed how we fell into their hands. You explained how public resources and public entities were used to maltreat citizens with this illegal profiling and to spy on diplomats of friendly countries with diplomatic relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
(from Counterpunch, Sept. 14, 2022, by W.T. Whitney)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombia\u2019s new president Gustavo Petro wants peace. Colombia\u2019s military, the largest in Latin America, except for that of Brazil, stands in the way. It benefits from U.S. largesse while attending to U.S. needs. Its intelligence branch, discussed here, is not about peace and reconciliation. The U.S. government, militarily involved in Colombia for decades is likewise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26,25,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombia","category-latin-america","category-venezuela"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16586"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16589,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16586\/revisions\/16589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ohiopeacecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}