A WikiLeaks cable says that Jose Obdulio Gaviria, then-adviser to ex-President Alvaro Uribe, secretly met with DAS officials in 2009 during a peak period in the wiretaps scandal, contradicting his public denial at the time.
Former U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield relays in a cable from May 22, 2009 that Gaviria privately admitted meeting with the security agency DAS’s counterintelligence deputy Jorge Lagos and deputy intelligence chief Fernando Tabares to discuss the issue of illegal wiretapping operations to try and link Supreme Court magistrate Yesid Ramierz and drug-trafficker Ascensio Reyes.
Gaviria, however, denied to Brownfield having ordered that they carry out illegal operations, according to the cable.
Lagos testified on May 14, 2009, that Gaviria and Uribe’s personal secretary Bernardo Moreno had ordered him to carry out illegal wiretaps, a claim Gaviria denied at the time, saying he had met only once with Lagos to discuss issues pertaining to other issues, and that it was an conspiracy being orchestrated by the opposition against the government.
The issue of linking Ramirez and Reyes was set against a broader set of revelations Colombian media was reporting at the time regarding illegal wiretapping of government opponents during the 2006 presidential election.
In separate cables released prior to Tuesday’s, high-profile profile officials, including Police Chief Oscar Naranjo and former DAS Director Andres Peñate, were shown to have privately expressed their beliefs to Brownfield that it was Gaviria who ordered the illegal wiretapping.
Gaviria has denied all claims against him but Tuesday’s revelation that he publicly lied meeting over the operations will likely further harm his image.
Both Gaviria and Moreno are currently under criminal investigation.