A Colombian intelligence official confirmed that the country’s intelligence agency DAS was spying on neighbors and had an informant in the Ecuadorean security forces, newscast Noticias UNO reported on Tuesday.
The newscast received parts of the classified documents that Venezuela used last week as evidence backing its allegations that Colombian officials were inside the leftist republic to spy on the government of President Hugo Chavez and were conspiring to destabilize the country.
The DAS then confirmed the documents were real, but denied its agents were spying on Venezuelan territory. According to both DAS and Noticias UNO, the documents are also in the hands of the Prosecutor General’s Office and make part of evidence gathered in the investigation of illegal wiretapping of government opponents by the intelligence agency.
Noticias UNO reported it had talked to one of the investigators involved in the intelligence operation and who is currently under investigation for having stolen classified information from the intelligence agency.
This official confirmed that the DAS had been spying on Venezuelan, Cuban and Ecuadorean civilians and officials inside Colombia and that it had an informant in the Ecuadorean security forces.
The DAS earlier acknowlegded it was conducting intelligence operations inside Colombia, but denied it was active outside of the Colombian border.