DAS DIRECTOR PENATE MAY RESIGN OVER URIBE REPROACH

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 011814

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2015
TAGS: MOPS PINR PREL CO
SUBJECT: DAS DIRECTOR PENATE MAY RESIGN OVER URIBE REPROACH

Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, Reason: 1.4 (b) & (d)


1. (C) On December 20, Departamento Administrativo de
Seguridad (DAS) Director Andres Penate told polcouns that he
was upset with President Uribe for excoriating him in public
after he tried to correct the record regarding Venezuelan
allegations that GOC military officials were working with
former Venezuelan military officers to overthrow Hugo Chavez.
Penate said he would be meeting with the President later in
the day, at which point he would decide whether he could stay
on. He also said he was scheduled to leave in the evening
for a meeting with GOV Interior and Justice Minister Jesse
Chacon on December 21.

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ALLEGATIONS BY CHAVEZ HAVE BEEN ONGOING
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2. (C) According to Penate, Chavez has been accusing the DAS
and the CIA for months of conspiracies against his life.
During a meeting last month, Chavez raised the matter again
with Uribe, who asked for evidence. In a follow-on meeting,
Chacon gave Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolina
Barco an address and picture of a building in Bogota, stating
that this was the cite of the "secret office where Colombian
military and CIA officers were plotting." Chacon said the
GOV could prove it was a secret CIA location in Bogota
because they had seen U.S. Embassy cars entering and exiting.


3. (S) Upon her return to Bogota, Barco gave the address and
picture to Penate, who immediately realized it was the
Intelligence School of the Army. He called the director of
the school to inquire whether any former Venezuelan military
officers had visited in recent months. The director
responded that Venezuelan officers in Bogota had been invited
"many times" to offer their perspectives on the military in
Venezuela, in particular its evolving relationship with
Chavez. The school director went on to say, according to
Penate, that these former Venezuelan military officers had
been the source for several reports prepared for Minister of
Defense policy makers on the status of the Venezuelan
military.


4. (C) Penate said he reprimanded the school's director for
poor judgment given the sensitive relationship between
Colombia and Venezuela and the "temporary special visa"
status of some of these officers. (Note: the GOC has
rejected requests for refugee status for several of the
officers involved in the 2002 coup against Chavez but they
have been allowed to remain in Colombia to secure refugee
status from a third country.) Penate then prepared a report
for the Minister of Defense, stating that there was no/no
coup plotting but rather routine intelligence gathering. At
the same time, Penate underscored to polcouns that, given the
"proclivities of his predecessors," he could not say
definitively whether they had ever had any "unauthorized
discussions" with the Venezuelans.


5. (C) Penate continued that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs
and Defense briefed the President last week on the matter,
and the latter became angry at the military for putting him
in a difficult position. With a meeting scheduled with
Chavez on December 17 in Santa Marta, Uribe decided that he
would tell his Venezuelan counterpart "the truth" about the
encounters. Penate noted that the Venezuelans immediately
made the matter public and the Venezuelan press played it as
a GOC acknowledgment of Chavez's allegations.


6. (C) By Sunday, December 18, Penate said the story was
getting out of hand and he grew frustrated that other GOC
ministers were not responding, fueling Venezuelan conclusions
that the plotting was true. At that point, he decided he
could help the President by correcting the record. He told
the press that the encounters were "ill-judged meetings for
academic purposes." He said he deliberately used that word
"academic" because he did not want to reveal the encounters
were for intelligence gathering. Penate said the President
reacted badly because he did not want anyone to say anything,
and criticized him in public. Penate acknowledged that his
judgment may have been off the mark but subsequent public
comments by the President had only made the situation worse
and gave the impression that something nefarious was indeed
going on.

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TOUGH START ON THE JOB
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7. (C) Penate said he was trying hard to repair the damage
inflicted on the DAS by the former director (Jorge Norguera)
and deputy (Jose Miguel Narvaez). In his first few days on
the job, Penate fired DAS directors in Boyaca Meta and
several other departments because they were "bad guys," in
some cases collaborating with paramilitaries. He cited in
particular the former DAS director of Boyaca who Penate
claimed was receiving monthly large sums of money from local
paramilitaries. Penate complained that recent allegations of
his family links to Rodrigo Tova Pupo, alias "Jorge 40," were
retaliation for his swift action against corrupt DAS
officials.
WOOD