US aid to Colombia linked to Uribe corruption scandal

US funding, and possibly some US officials, may be tied to the wiretapping and corruption scandal currently under congressional investigation implicating the former Alvaro Uribe administration in Colombia. According to the Washington Post, funds from the US were being diverted and abused in a campaign against Supreme Court justices, political opponents, and other civil society groups. US officials deny any knowledge that the money was going towards abuses of power. However, William Romero, a top official at the Department of Administrative Security, the DAS, in Colombia said that the department relied heavily on US technological support through wiretapping devices, camera and cell phone interception systems.

The Colombian general attorney’s office is currently investigating the DAS, with six former intelligence officials already admitting to involvement and more than a dozen others on trial. Uribe himself is being investigated by a legislative commission and testified before congress last week, denying any involvement or knowledge of the corruption.

Colombia receives the most military funding of any country in Latin America, at $6 billion dollars during Uribe’s presidency alone. The money was supposed to go towards anti-drug and insurgency campaigns, but instead fueled efforts to quell investigations by the Colombian Supreme Court and political opponents into paramilitary and drug-lord ties with the administration. In a revealing story cited yesterday, a former secret agent under the Uribe administration talks about her infiltration of the Colombian courts.

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