We got computers, we're tappin' phone lines
There are no concrete sources, but an "unidentified Colombian intelligence officer" says that Colombia has been tapping the phone of Rafael Correa and others in Ecuador. Given everything that the DAS does, it is entirely plausible. It all started after the Colombian attack on the FARC over the border in Ecuador, presumably in the belief that Correa knew about and perhaps even was complicit with the FARC.
I would take this also to mean, though, that if they've tapping phones for two years and have said nothing, they have found no such link.
It is also plausible that someone in Colombia wants to help scuttle the slowly thawing relationship between Ecuador and Colombia by angering Correa. Even if not, what accounts for the timing of the revelation?
5 comments:
I didn't initially buy the idea that this was some Colombian agent's way to scuttle the budding relationship. After all, there are other ways to sabotage relations that don't make Colombia look so bad. But then I remembered that Correa had offered to help mediate with FARC just the other day. Colombia hates these offers to mediate, so anything is possible.
And by the way, even if there was some ulterior motive with the leak, it does not preclude the likelihood that the tapping is true.
After all, there are other ways to sabotage relations that don't make Colombia look so bad.
I don't think the Colombian establishment really cares if it looks bad to the Latin American Left. Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress won't even bat an eye at this scandal, and the right and center-right in Latin America probably won't bat an eye either.
Thank you for the Talking Heads reference. That aside, to Santos and Uribe, go get 'em. What has Ecuador done except bitch and moan about the attack on Reyes? You think Chavez wouldn't do exactly the same thing if he has the ability? Good to see Plan Colombia paying some dividends (in the form of intelligence gathering) for the Colombians too.
Like I said, the right-wingers couldn't care less if the Uribe government taps the phones of neighboring governments. Unfortunately, the hemispheric right has little sense of restraint on these matters.
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