Colombia’s former intelligence chief Maria Del Pilar Hurtado helped re-elect Interpol’s Secretary General, who recently refused to sign an arrest warrant for the former DAS director, Noticas Uno reported Sunday. Interpol has denied the allegations and stressed the report is “patently erroneous and it maligns INTERPOL and its Secretary General.”
According to the news cast, Ronald Noble, the Secretary General of Interpol, received support from the then-DAS director in his 2008 elections for the position of Secretary General and met Del Pilar Hurtado in 2008 when Interpol agreed to analyze the files found on FARC commander Raul Reyes’ computer in 2008.
Del Pilar Hurtado served on Interpol’s executive board between 2008 and 2009. She resigned after allegations of ordering lower-ranked intelligence officials to illegally wiretap and spy on people they deemed government opponents.
In an email to Colombia Reports, Interpol spokesman Pietro Calcaterra points out that “Secretary General Noble was unanimously re-elected to his post during INTERPOL’s General Assembly in Berlin in 2005, before Maria Del Pilar Hurtado was appointed to DAS. Mr Noble was subsequently re-elected to a third term during INTERPOL’s General Assembly in Doha in 2010, well after Maria Del Pilar Hurtado had left her position.”
Calcaterra added that “INTERPOL does not sign international arrest warrants. Its General Secretariat in Lyon, France issues Red Notices for internationally-wanted persons at the request of its member countries, after a legal process to ensure that such requests comply with Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution, which prevents the Organization from getting involved in matters political, military or religious.”
Last week, Interpol denied Colombia’s request to issue a red notice for Del Pilar Hurtado, who is currently residing in Panama with political asylum.
According to Interpol, a red notice for Del Pilar Hurtado’s arrest was not issued “for reasons having to do with the statutes of that body, there is no immediate arrest warrant.”
The former DAS chief is wanted by Colombian justice to face charges over the wiretap scandal.