Colombia’s government has been spying on a journalist using the car she was given for her protection, according to press freedom foundation FLIP.
According to the FLIP, the National Prosecution Unit of the Interior Ministry has been illegally gathering data from the GPS system installed in the car of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque between February and August.
FLIP had access to more than 25,000 records collected by the UNP between February and August 2021 through the GPS installed in the car assigned to the journalist for protection. The monitoring is permanent and detailed, and is sometimes carried out every 15 or 30 seconds.
FLIP director Jonathan Bock
The journalist and her daughter became the target of an intimidation campaign of now-defunct spy agency DAS since she began investigating the 1999 assassination of comedian Jaime Garzon.
Duque was forced to flee Colombia on multiple occasions after she revealed that State officials colluded with paramilitary group AUC in the high-profile assassination in 2001.
The human rights commission of the Organization of American States ordered the government to protect the journalist in 2009, claiming that Duque and her daughter had been the victim of persecution and psychological torture.
The alleged spying on Duque implies that the UNP could be doing the same with any of the thousands of journalists and human rights defenders who the agency is supposed to protect.
The monitoring includes date, time, exact addresses, and location. This is personal and sensitive data that requires informed consent that has never been authorized by Duque. This information affects the her security, and that of her family members and sources.
FLIP director Jonathan Bock
Neither the UNP nor the agency’s director, Alfonso Campo, immediately responded to the accusations that it was abusing technology meant to protect people who are threatened to spy.
The UNP has been under fire for years about its alleged failure to provide effective protection to those who are threatened and use its resources to provide protection to socialites and people close to the government.