'Intelligence service colluded in journalist's assassination': Don Berna

[Judi Lynn]

'Intelligence service colluded in journalist's assassination': Don Berna
Monday, 13 February 2012 15:19
Charles Parkinson

Former AUC paramilitary commander "Don Berna" has implicated a senior intelligence official in the 1999 assassination of journalist Jaime Garzon, reported Colombian media Monday.

According to Diego Fernando Murillo, alias Don Berna, then-Assistant Director of Colombia's DAS intelligence service Jose Miguel Narvaez was complicit in the assassination of Garzon

Murillo's testimony claims that Narvaez was not content with the original assassination plan prepared by then-AUC commander Carlos Castaño, and colluded to provide military intelligence regarding Garzon's work and travel activities to facilitate the assassination.

~snip~

On Friday August 13 in 1999 Garzon was driving to work when two men on a motorbike with hidden plates rode up to his car and shot him five times. The death of the popular journalist, comedian, presenter and peace activist caused an outpouring of grief in Colombia and has remained one of the most prominent unsolved assassinations of recent decades.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/22179-don-berna-implicates-former-senior-intelligence-official-in-journalists-assassination.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Jailed paramilitary names high profile kidnappers

Jailed paramilitary names high profile kidnappers
Tuesday, 14 February 2012 17:24
Arron Daugherty

Extradited AUC commander "Don Berna," has named a deceased AUC comrade and ex-Colombian intelligence agency official in several high profile kidnappings, reported local media Tuesday.

Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano alias, "Don Berna," gave his latest testimony from a prison cell in Miami, where he is serving a 31 year sentence for cocaine trafficking.

According to the testimony Jose Miguel Narvaez (former sub-director of now dismantled Colombian intelligence agency DAS) and AUC commander Carlos Castaño were the masterminds behind the 1994 kidnapping of then Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, for her perceived ties to the FARC (Colombia's largest guerrilla group).

Don Berna said, "Narvaez wanted [the AUC] to kill her, to shoot her. He always thought anything left wing was dangerous for the country."

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/22210-jailed-paramilitary-names-dead-comrade-and-former-intelligence-official-in-kidnappings.html