Colombia rejects intelligence report

Colombia on Sunday rejected a Los Angeles Times report that the CIA had intelligence alleging that the country’s army chief collaborated with right-wing militias accused of atrocities, drug trafficking and massacres.

The report, published Sunday, cited a CIA document about Colombia’s army commander, Gen. Mario Montoya, and a paramilitary group jointly planning and conducting an operation in 2002 to wipe out Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin.

The report came as the White House is asking Congress to approve extending approximately $700 million a year in mostly military aid to help Colombia’s government fight rebels and the illicit drug trade.

Montoya has a close association with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and would be the highest-ranking Colombian officer implicated in a scandal over links between the outlawed militias and some of Uribe’s political allies.

In a brief statement, Colombia’s government called for any charges with proof to be presented before judicial authorities.

“Colombia’s government rejects accusations made by foreign intelligence agencies against army commander Gen. Mario Montoya, that have been filtered through the press, without evidence being presented to Colombian justice and the government,” it said.

Most of Colombia’s paramilitaries have demobilized under a deal with Uribe, but revelations are surfacing about ties to the political elite. Rights groups have long charged that some military officers have cooperated with the militias in a brutal counterinsurgency campaign.

Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers and a state governor have been arrested on criminal charges involving alleged collusion with paramilitary commands, which were set up in the 1980s to help fight Marxist rebels. U.S. officials brand the militias as drug-trafficking terrorists.