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December 15, 2020 Colombia’s President Ivan Duque plans to create a new spy agency to “strengthen the instruments of prevention against the scourge of terrorism.” The new spy agency is part of a broader strategy to combat “terrorism,” a term previously used by the far-right government to criminalize peaceful protests or political opposition. The creation of the Integral Center for Information and Intelligence against Terrorism, or “CI3T,” is part of the so-called “Presidential Program for the Prevention of Terrorism” Duque seeks to issue by decree. CI3T or DAS 2.0? The CI3T will be led by Duque’s National Security adviser Rafael Guarin, a longtime admirer of Duque’s political patron, former President Alvaro Uribe and and ally of Senator Jose Obdulio Gaviria, the cousin of late drug lord Pablo Escobar and Uribe’s former adviser, according to a draft decree. ....
December 15, 2020 Campaign financing and political favors have given organized crime groups almost unprecedented access to government, including the administration of President Ivan Duque. Through corruption and infiltration, Colombia’s mafias have made themselves almost untouchable for law enforcement from Tumaco in southwest Colombia all the way to Washington DC. The power to take down presidents Marquitos Figueroa The US Department of Justice (DOJ), for example, has yet to indict alleged drug lord Marquitos Figueroa despite his arrest in Brazil in 2014. In Colombia, the alleged mafia boss has seen all criminal charges go up in smoke except for one homicide. Meanwhile, President Ivan Duque and his political party are in legal trouble over their ties to one of Figueroa’s late money launderers and the drug trafficking organization’s 2018 campaign support. ....