This is how the illegal espionage scandal that shakes President Gustavo Petro goes

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, faces a crisis after a series of complaints for possible illegal interceptions to the cell phones of the judges of the Constitutional Court.

The Colombian president has insisted since the magistrates’ complaint became known that the State intelligence agencies have been ordered from the first day of his mandate “not to interfere with the communications of the courts, members of the press and the opposition.”

“I am a democrat, the government does not intercept communications (…) WhatsApp reaches the magistrates and they believe in the WhatsApp network. You believe in fake news. They are trying to weaken the Government, breaking its internal relations and its relations with the other branches of public power, with fake news“said the president on Tuesday at a promotion event for police generals.

Furthermore, from the presidential press office they reiterated that no order has been given to intercept magistrates and announced that they will begin investigations to clarify the facts.

How the alleged case of illegal wiretapping began

It all started on Saturday when Judge Jorge Ibáñez reported that his phone was being interfered with irregularly.

“I allow myself to inform you that this telephone and this chat have been illegally intercepted by the intelligence agencies of the State,” said Ibáñez in a letter addressed to the Prosecutor’s Office, and published by the Weekly magazine.

The judge’s complaint led to a meeting of the high court magistrates with the Prosecutor’s Office, where they expressed the alleged interceptions of their phones to the Colombian prosecutor, who announced an investigation into the alleged cases of espionage.

Likewise, to the complaint of Judge Ibáñez, on Tuesday the request of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP, the peace court that emerged from the 2016 peace agreement, was added to the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate espionage of which their magistrates.

“The Special Jurisdiction for Peace informs that it has asked the Prosecutor’s Office and the competent authorities to investigate the alleged illegal interceptions that were being carried out against the offices of the magistrates of this institution,” the JEP wrote in its account. x.

What has changed since Saturday

Judge Jorge Ibáñez confirmed at a press conference this Wednesday that he was summoned by the Prosecutor’s Office to expand information about the alleged interventions on his phones within the framework of the investigation process initiated by the Attorney General, Luz Adriana Camargo.

“I have already gone to the Prosecutor’s Office, as have some auxiliary magistrates in my office to expand on the information contained in that letter through which facts that I called irregular were made known,” the magistrate told the media, also pointing out that he does not consider himself a “victim” and that he has not “made” a formal complaint regarding these events.

For his part, Carlos Ramón González, in charge of the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), and one of the people closest to the Colombian president, emphasized after a meeting this Wednesday at the Palace of Justice with the president of the Supreme Court, Gerson Chaverra, that “there is no concrete evidence” about the alleged interceptions of communications of which the magistrates were victims.

“There is no specific complaint, only Judge Ibáñez put some information on the table that the Prosecutor’s Office is already investigating. With all the presidents of the high courts and the Prosecutor’s Office, we concluded to prepare a working document so that effectively, as a result of all these scandals, efficient controls are carried out on all the intelligence carried out in this country,” said González, who also assured that ” “The institutions of the government, of the Colombian State, are not used to persecute citizens.”

Illegal espionage in Colombia

The new scandal that engulfs the Colombian government revives again the illegal interventions that in the past were also victims of magistrates, journalists and politicians, including President Petro himself.

During the term of former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), the scandal of illegal monitoring of the communications of several opponents by the defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS) broke out, in a case known as “wiretapping.”

Several government officials were convicted for this espionage scandal, including María del Pilar Hurtado, former head of the now-defunct DAS, and Bernardo Moreno, former secretary of the Presidency of Colombia.

Finally, the predecessor of President Gustavo Petro, and political rival, former president Iván Duque (2018-2022), was also affected by the scandal of illegal wiretapping of opponents and journalists, which ended with the departure of his Army commander, General Nicasio Martínez.

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