The personal secretary and the presidential adviser of Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe can not have ordered the DAS counterintelligence
director to illegally wiretap government opponents, because the
official never met employees of the Presidency, former DAS director Andres Peñate said.
“In the 22 months that I was director of DAS, Jorge Lagos did not go to the Presidential Palace with or without my permission. The only meetings there had been between high officials of whatever branch of the executive, were with the director of the DAS, in other words: myself,” the former director told W Radio.
Peñate’s former counterintelligence director had told several media that he had met with Uribe’s personal secretary Bernardo Moreno and presidential adviser Jose Obdulio Gaviria about the shadowing of political opponents of the President.
Peñate had declared before the Prosecutor General that all documents sent from the DAS to the government were revised by him personally.
The former counterintelligence director defended Uribe’s integrity in an interview with the radio station.
“The president told me: I don’t want you come to me here to bring me gossip about politicians, or journalists, or members of the opposition, or of NGOs, or of magistrates,” the former official said.
He did however demand to be included in a witness protection program, because he feared his life and that of his family were at risk after incriminating the Presidency.