Colombia: Santos dissolves security department
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011Santos distances himself from Uribe in response to US pressure
[Translation of an Agence France Presse article as published in Vanguardia of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on November 1. See original here.]
“The country knows very well the reasons we have decided to take this step,” said President Santos as he announced Monday evening the elimination of the agency. “It is not a transformation, it is not a reform. In the case of the DAS (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad – Administrative Security Department) it is liquidation. DAS is being eliminated,” the president declared.
During the Uribe administration (2002-2010), DAS was involved in scandals over infiltration by paramilitary groups.
One of its former directors, Jorge Noguera, was convicted of homicide and complicity with these extreme right groups, which were demobilized between 2003 and 2006, and former vice director José Miguel Narváez is also charged with homicide. (more…)