Colombian Congressman Ivan Cepeda alleges that state intelligence agency DAS had detailed plans to discredit the NGO Movimiento de Victimas de Crimenes de Estado (The Movement for Victims of Crimes of the State), Caracol Radio reported Wednesday.
Cepeda highlighted in particular a plan that was to be enacted during the second national meeting of the movement.
Using state-led propaganda, he said the campaign would aim to discredit the movement by suggesting links between the group, the FARC and the ELN. This strategy included printing flyers regarding the FARC’s and ELN’s records of terrorist activity and distributing them at locations close to the NGOs convention, Cepeda said.
The DAS also planned to use the Internet in both national and international levels to help organize a mass protest against the guerrillas and the organization at the end of the event, according to Cepeda.
Cepeda claimed the cost of the campaign was $1,170 (COP2.2 million) and that it was ordered by the then director of the DAS, Fernando Ovalle.
Cepeda has been a vocal human rights activist since his father, also a congressman, was shot in Bogota in 1994 by suspected paramilitaries.