Colombia’s Vice President Angelino Garzon says that any tension between governments in the wake of the release of sensitive documents by WikiLeaks will be overcome through diplomatic means, reports CM&.
The whistleblower website gained access to some 250,000 cables, including 2,416 sent to or from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, dating back to January 1985.
According to WikiLeaks, 1,176 of these documents are unclassified, 1,106 are confidential and 134 were classified as secret.
“We have to wait and see how these are processed in terms of relations between states, [and] we must seek mechanisms of understanding between states to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” said Garzon.
Garzon said that dialogue would be very important in dealing with the situation.
U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Michael McKinley described the WikiLeaks decision to release the documents as “deplorable.”
The ambassador said, however, that the leaked documents in no way represented spying by the U.S. government, but instead contained everyday diplomacy work that aimed to resolve conflict.
“[The documents] include conversations, not only with government, but conversations with all levels; conversations which help aid and protect human rights,” McKinley said.
McKinley said that the documents would not affect the U.S. government´s relations with other countries.
The leaked cables are part of over 250,000 State Department documents that were obtained by WikiLeaks, parts of which were published by newspapers including The New York Times and U.K. daily The Guardian.