By Bawer Turan
Copyright colombiareports
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has turned the National Intelligence Directorate (DNI) into an anti-imperialist intelligence agency, an investigation by news website La Silla Vacia suggests.
Since 2022, the agency has shifted from supporting foreign intelligence agencies to prioritizing Petro’s anti-imperialist strategy, focusing on corruption, Petro’s ‘total peace’ policy, and protecting the president.
The government also significantly increased the DNI’s budget from $27,7 million (COP108 billion) to $49,7 million (COP193.8 billion) this year.
The president replaced many officials with trusted former comrades of the M-19 guerrilla group in key positions.
These include the former DNI director Carlos Ramon Gonzalez and the current director, Jorge Lemus.
Breaking away from Western imperial intelligence agencies
Since its inception in 2011, the DNI has worked closely with the CIA, MI6, and Mossad, the intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel, respectively.
“The British government and its intelligence services played a very important role, but they weren’t the only ones. The American government and the CIA were also involved, and there were also Israeli opinions,” a source who worked with the agency, told La Silla Vacia.
During the administration of former president Ivan Duque, the DNI became ideologically aligned with the CIA and Western intelligence agencies in general, according to sources that worked at the agency in those years.
The agency was even linked to a failed coup attempt, “Operacion Gedeon,” against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in 2019.
Lemus told La Silla Vacia that the agency was used to target countries that opposed US policy.
Specifically, they used intelligence to target countries that ideologically disagreed with us. That is what was done with Venezuela. A lot of intelligence was conducted here, and a lot of money was paid to conduct intelligence in Venezuela. That was strategic for them.
Jorge Lemus
When Petro took office, the DNI aligned itself with the agendas of explicitly anti-imperial governments, such as Cuba and Venezuela.
They changed intelligence allies. The DNI director’s first trip in this administration was to Cuba. Then he whent to Venezuela.
Former DNI Agent
New priorities
Instead of working for foreign intelligence agencies, the DNI shifted its focus to domestic issues like corruption, peace, and the physical protection of the president.
Among other things, the DNI took over tasks previously overseen by foreign intelligence agencies.
“The curation of personnel entering the Dipol (Police Intelligence Directorate) was done by American agencies like the CIA or the FBI. This is now done by the DNI,” a source with direct information told La Silla Vacia.
The employment of former M-19 guerrillas stems from Petro’s mistrust of sectors within the security forces and intelligence community, which have long maintained ties to organized crime and paramilitary groups.
The DNI is also tasked with protecting the president alongside the Unidad Nacional de Proteccion (UNP), which is headed by another trusted ex-M19 member, Augusto Rogriguez
“If protecting the president isn’t strategic, I don’t know what is,” said Lemus, in defense of expanding the agency’s tasks.
The DNI’s predecessor, the Administrative Security Department (DAS), was dismantled in 2011 in response to a major scandal regarding the intelligence agency’s spying on Petro and the Supreme Court for their investigations into politicians with ties to paramilitaries.
Petro also expanded the DNI’s functions to intervene in anti-corruption matters.
In February this year, the president issued a directive ordering all ministries and public entities to cooperate with the DNI.
The directive requires the entities to hand over information requested by the DNI and collaborate in anti-corruption investigations.
