Colombia forces out police chief (right wing)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle/Associated Press

May 14, 2007, 11:49PM
Colombia forces out police chief

By TOBY MUSE Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia's police chief and the head of police intelligence were forced to retire Monday as the government alleged that police illegally tapped calls of opposition political figures, journalists and members of the government for the past two years.

The scandal multiplied U.S.-ally President Alvaro Uribe's woes on a day judicial authorities also ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders, including five congressmen, on criminal conspiracy charges for signing a 2001 pact with illegal right-wing militias.
(snip)

Political opposition figures frequently complain of harassment by the security services, including the tapping of their phones. Journalists in Colombia assume their phone conversations are recorded by intelligence agencies, domestic and foreign.
(snip)

The wiretapping scandal is hugely embarrassing to a government struggling over the arrests of some of Uribe's closest allies for allegedly benefiting from ties to the paramilitaries, who in a decade-long reign of terror killed thousands of suspected rebel sympathizers and stole land from tens of thousands of peasants.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4804189.html

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Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro

[Peace Patriot]

1. I'm waiting for this day in the U.S. of A.....

"...on a day judicial authorities also ordered the arrest of 20 politicians and business leaders, including five congressmen, on criminal conspiracy charges...."

...only I think the list of criminal conspirators will be a lot longer.