Colombia’s President Ivan Duque presented the United Nations with misinformation on guerrilla activity in Venezuela obtained with the help of his own intelligence agency, not the military.
Armed Forces commander General Luis Navarro was forced to let go of his intelligence chief on Tuesday, but a video of Duque personally receiving the erroneous information indicates this was facilitated by the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI).
The director of Venezuelan NGO Fundacion Redes, Javier Tarazona, filmed himself while giving Duque one of the pieces of false evidence presented to the United Nations General Assembly.
Fundacion Redes director Javier Tarazona
In the video that was posted on September 4, Tarazona tells Duque that “I have talked to Admiral [Rodolfo] Amaya. This is our report on the guerrillas’ activity in Venezuela.”
An anonymous source from the President’s Office told AFP last week that “military intelligence surrendered this photo.” This is false.
The image shared by the military in 2014 and 2015 over ELN activity in the southwestern Cauca province had no arrows in it.
The image Duque falsely claimed was taken in the Venezuelan state of Tachira does have arrows, exactly like the Fundacion Redes report.
Image without arrows as released by the military in 2014 (L) and with arrows as released by Redes and Duque.
Everything indicates that the Armed Forces’ Department of Intelligence and Counterintelligence surrendered accurate information, but that the extracts made public by Duque contained false information facilitated by the DNI.
Armed Forces commander General Luis Navarro
The report presented by Duque at the UN has the logo of the President’s Office on it, not that of the military. The false information was facilitated by Amaya, according to the Venezuelan NGO, not Navarro.
The mistake apparently made by Colombia’s Armed Forces was to assume that the information facilitated by Duque’s personal intelligence chief was accurate.