Colombia’s Supreme Court on Monday called reported spying by the army in collusion with President Ivan Duque’s party “an attack on democracy” as criminal investigations kicked off.
Former army chief Nicasio Martinez’s reported order to spy on the court investigating Duque’s political patron, former President Alvaro Uribe, and forward this to the ruling party, triggered a crisis unseen since 2008.
Colombia’s army spied on court, politicians and journalists: report
Supreme Court
Uribe and Duque in the defense
While the prosecution announced 14 criminal investigation into spying allegations it previously discarded, Uribe announced that his defense attorney would be defending the former army chief.
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo, who reportedly tried to stop a court-ordered raid on an army compound, told press that Duque had ordered that investigations ”begin” into the spying he already knew about months ago.
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo
‘Duque informed about spying half a year ago already’
Senator Roy Barreras, one of the reported victims, reiterated on Twitter that Duque and the prosecution knew about the spying months ago already.
Senator Roy Barreras
Barreras accused the government of trying to cover up the reported spying practices and to “recover confidence.”
Duque’s spy agency illegally wiretapping Colombia’s congress: senator
The report by Semana and the Supreme Court’s discovery of listening devices in the office of the magistrate investigating Uribe threaten to cause an institutional crisis similar to when Duque’s political patron was president.
Several of Uribe’s former presidential aides and intelligence chiefs are in prison after Congress in 2009 found out that now-defunct intelligence agency DAS was conducting exactly the same criminal activities the army is accused of now.