Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Tarek El Aissami showed official documents belonging to Colombia’s intelligence agency DAS as part of his government’s evidence that Colombia is spying. The DAS said to be “worried” that classified documents ended up in Venezuelan hands.
According to the Venezuelan official, the documents demonstrate how Colombian President Alvaro Uribe knew of his intelligence agency’s spying activities as “promoted by the (Colombian) government … against our country, our government and the stability of the region.”
El Aissami claimed the documents show how Colombian intelligence operation ‘Salomon’ hconsisted of spying activities in Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador, all leftist governments who have often criticized the right-wing government of Uribe and by Bogota have been accused of supporting Marxist rebels active in Colombia.
According to Venezuela, the documents reveal how ‘Operation Salomon’ was financed by “the DAS itself with help of the U.S. embassy in Bogota through the CIA.
The U.S. embassy paid the rent of the building where the 144 Colombian intelligence officials were conducting operations against the three countries, said El Aissami.
The two alleged DAS officials who were arrested by Venezuelan authorities earlier this month, made up part of the Colombian plan to destabilize the Venezuelan government, the Interior Minister reiterated.
In a press release, the DAS recognized the documents shown by the Venezuelan Minister were real, but had nothing to do with spying activities against other countries. “The report to which is reffered is a classified document that is part of an internal investigation that, moreover, is part of a process carried our by Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office,” said the DAS.
According to the intelligence agency, the “false” information in Venezuelan hands was sold to them by former DAS official Rafael Garcia who earlier accused Bogota of plotting against the Venezuelan government and. The former official is a key witness in the trial against former DAS director Jorge Noguera, who is investigated for paramilitary ties.
The Colombian intelligence agency admits it is conducting intelligence operations “within national terrritory” to “identify phenomenons that could affect national stability and security.” the service considers it “serious and worrying” that classified information ended up in Venezuelan hands.