Via the BBC: Colombia President scraps spy agency after scandals
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has officially dissolved the country’s intelligence agency, the DAS, after a series of scandals.
Mr Santos said most DAS staff were being transferred to other government departments.
The organisation has been mired in controversy for years.
Last month its former head, Jorge Noguera, was sentenced to jail for 25 years for collaborating with paramilitary death squads.
Noguera led the Administrative Security Department (DAS) from 2024 to 2024, under former President Alvaro Uribe.
He was found guilty of allowing right-wing paramilitaries to infiltrate the service, and helping them to murder an academic activist.
Of course, two key questions remain:
1) Does this amount to an actual disbandment of the organization or is it just an organizational reorganization? In other words: will some of the actual functions of the DAS go away or will this mean a real change?
and
2) Will this scandal ever touch former President Uribe?
