[R-G] Canadian embassy in Bogota targeted

[Anthony Fenton]

Canadian embassy in Bogota targeted
Leak suspected as paramilitary group e-mails threats to mission
Craig Offman, National Post  Published: Monday, June 16, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=592146

A Colombian paramilitary group has sent threatening e-mails to  
Canada's embassy in Bogota because it provides asylum for former  
members, a leading newspaper says.

El Tiempo reported on Sunday that for the past 12 days, the Black  
Eagles have sent intimidating correspondence to the embassy,  
criticizing Canada for giving exile to former paramilitary members who  
have become state witnesses. The e-mails also suggest there might be a  
leak in the Bogota mission.

The report comes 10 days after Canada signed a much-noted free-trade  
agreement with the embattled South American country, and more than a  
month after the National Post revealed that a hit squad had planned to  
enter Canada on tourist visas and assassinate a former paramilitary  
member who had implicated a cousin of president Álvaro Uribe Vélez for  
his role in various death squads.

Dozens of congressional members have already been scrutinized for  
their connection to paramilitary groups in Colombia, an investigation  
that has undercut the legitimacy of Mr. Uribe.

While not speaking directly about the report, Stockwell Day, the  
Minister of Public Safety, did say that in general, these kinds of  
scenarios arise when countries take strong positions with troubled  
allies.

"Anytime that a country like Canada is involved in promoting or  
protecting our own democracy and helping other countries struggling  
with their own resources, we're going to run into the possibility of a  
threat," he said.

"It's in helping these countries that we actually wind up pushing back  
the people who think they can bully or extort their way into getting  
their malicious goals accomplished."

Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro said paramilitary forces have  
infiltrated various sectors of Colombian society, from the police to  
the justice department, and often threaten people who oppose them.

"They also threaten foreign embassies, and it looks like the Canadian  
embassy is now one of them," said Mr. Petro, a leading member of the  
opposition.

While Canada is one of several countries whose embassies who have  
received similar warnings in recent months, the newspaper article  
referred to an unnamed source who alleged that the Black Eagles had  
privileged information from the Canadian embassy identifying the  
family of a witness, which suggests a security breach.

The El Tiempo story said "the information regarding the family was  
only recently collected and known only to a small group of high-level  
Canadians."

Neither the Colombian embassy in Ottawa nor Canada's Department of  
Foreign Affairs and International Trade would confirm or deny details  
of the report, instead saying that they were aware of it.

"We have an established security infrastructure to protect Canadian  
government employees, information and assets," said foreign affairs  
spokeswoman Silvia Généreux, adding that she could not comment on  
security matters.

The motives of the Black Eagles are confusing, said one expert.

Usually such a group would be targeting left-wing opponents, not  
allies, of President Uribe. "The Canadian government is actually being  
used as example by the European Union and the United States as a  
reason to work with Uribe," said James Brittain, a sociology professor  
at Acadia University who has been studying the evolution of the  
Canadian-Colombian relationship.

"It shows how out of touch with reality, how paranoid, these people  
are."

National Post, with files

from Stewart Bell

and Natalie Alcoba

coffman at nationalpost.com