Former Press Secretary Cesar Mauricio Velasquez on Monday said he had come “to tell the truth” after being interrogated for his alleged role in the illegal wiretapping of government opponents.
Velasquez, current Colombian ambassador to the Vatican, was called to appear before investigators after several former executives from intelligence agency DAS had implicated him in the wiretapping of Supreme Court judges, journalists, human rights workers and politicians.
“I am here to tell the truth. Within the government of [Alvaro] Uribe we acted facing the country and as truthfully as possible,” Velasquez told press after his seven-hour interrogation.
Velasquez said he “will not seek asylum” and “also did not receive instructions from former President Uribe other than to tell the truth” after controversy broke over the political asylum granted by Panama to former DAS director Maria del Pilar Hurtado and Uribe’s confession he had suggested political asylum because of a “lack of judicial guarantees” in Colombia.
The former press secretary is one of several former employees implicated in the wiretap scandal. Uribe’s former chief of staff was barred from holding public office for 18 years, and his personal advisor is being investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office. A congressional committee is investigating the former president himself.