Colombia’s army chief has come under scrutiny for allegedly abusing his power to spy on his wife’s English teacher.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, the Inspector General’s Office and the inspector of the military all announced investigations into General Mauricio Ospina.
The investigations are a response to controversial weekly Semana, which accused Ospina of employing the army’s counterintelligence unit because he was jealous with his wife’s teacher, Leonardo Colmenares.
The general told Semana that he ordered counterintelligence to verify the identity of Colmenares after the teacher told Ospina’s wife that people were gossiping about their daughter’s drug use.
Audio recordings suggest that the unit subsequently spied on Colmenares and employed an agent to get close to the teacher in July and August.
According to Colmenares, “they wanted to disappear… or kill me.”
The counterintelligence operation was reportedly abandoned within days.
Ospina can legally order counterintelligence operations to “anticipate, detect and neutralize actions to protect personnel, facilities, material and information,” the National Army said in a statement.
This is the basis for the Army Commander’s authority to order the Military Counterintelligence Unit to carry out verification activities in response to information that alerts about a possible violation of the security and integrity of the Commander and his family, and, in general, of the community that lives and travels daily in the military and academic cantons located north of the capital.
National Army
Semana demanded the resignation of the army chief, claiming that he had ordered the counterintelligence operation for personal motives.
The weekly, which is run by a member of the Gnecco crime family, has become one of the most vocal critics of the national authorities after the election of President Gustavo Petro.
Previous revelations made by Semana triggered investigations into the president’s former chief of staff and multiple police intelligence officials.
