Scott Hansen

After 37 years, the 1972 Watergate scandal under Richard Nixon’s presidency has revived in Colombia under President Alvaro Uribe Velez. Since 2004, the Department of Administrative Security of Colombia (DAS) – which answers directly to the office of the president – has been illegally eavesdropping on anyone who has a different or critical opinion of the government. This includes journalists, Supreme Court justices and opposition law makers.

Colombia won’t ever forget Sept. 8, 2003, the day Uribe divided the country into two sides: Citizens of good (government supporters) and terrorists (oppositionists).

“Human rights supporters are actually working for the service of terrorism, trying to give the territory Colombian Forces have taken from the terrorism back to it,” Uribe said “hiding behind the flag of human rights.”

Immediately after this discourse, Colombian human rights supporters knew the serious implications it would have. Additionally, organizations such as International Amnesty and Human Right Watch showed their preoccupation about the future consequences. Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, José Miguel Vivanco claimed that he hoped his discourse from the president was part of a personal sensitive attitude, instead of a new official discourse from the government.

Uribe’s words had publicly accused journalists, Supreme Court justices, oppositionists and human right supporters of being accomplices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This accusation makes oppositionists direct enemies to the government, National Armed Forces, and even worse, a large part of the society with no criteria. If something happens to any of those people publicly accused, the responsibility would be directly on the president.

“When terrorists are feeling weak, they immediately send their spokespeople to talk about Human Rights,” Uribe said.

It seems like the DAS received this discourse as an order, because these declarations from the president against human rights supporters within the last seven years coincide with the creation of four special groups of intelligence and analysis (G3). These groups are responsible for the eavesdropping, destabilization and intimidation.

As the situation worsens in Colombia, Margaret Sekaggya, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission made an urgent visit to the country in September 2009. Margaret showed her concerns about the human rights situation in the developing country and made a call on the public prosecutor to imprison at least 40 government employees of the DAS, including four of its last directors.

Jorge Noguera, ex-director of the DAS from 2002 to 2005, is now in prison on charges of supporting insurgent groups and for starting the illegal eavesdrops.

The President’s discourse and his control of the Department of Administrative Security aren’t the only proof of his culpability in this illegal eavesdropping. There are official documents and declarations from the government employees under arrest that confirm once again that these actions were direct orders from the President.

This situation isn’t new in Colombia. However, in the last years under Uribe’s power it has worsened to the point of intimidating Colombian citizens and taking from them any kind of freedom and privacy.

As a Colombian citizen, I hope those responsible for this crime are punished. But, it is not likely to happen. The corruption seems to be a duty on my country. Now, the Public Prosecutor is taking this case, but is it an independent department? Is it truthful? It doesn’t matter if 44 million Colombians (whole country) know the reality, there is still one person doing whatever he wants with the country.

It has been claimed that the government is going to put an end to the DAS, but for me this is not a solution. If the DAS isn’t responsible for those illegal procedures, those will be taken by another government organization. The solution is in the change of the political system, one really committed to freedom and democracy.

I know this is easy to say, but difficult – if not impossible – to put in practice. Colombia is such a complex nation, full of poverty, crime, Human Rights violations and ignorant community. At least, I hope to leave arenas for reflection and opinion.

Pinzon Mendoza is an international student studying journalism.