Colombian intelligence spied on Russian and Cuban diplomats, reports claim
January 18, 2023 1 Comment
COLOMBIAN INTELLIGENCE CARRIED OUT surveillance operations against Russian and Cuban diplomats stationed in Colombia between 2016 and 2019, according to media reports that surfaced earlier this week. The reports claim that Colombia’s National Intelligence Directorate (DNI) was behind the operations, which involved physical, as well as electronic, surveillance.
One of the operations was reportedly codenamed CATEDRA, and targeted three senior staff members of the Russian embassy in the Colombian capital Bogota. In addition to the diplomats themselves, DNI agents allegedly spied on the diplomats’ spouses and their children. In some cases, DNI agents disguised themselves as “street vendors” in order to spy on the homes of the diplomats. The agency also planted electronic devices in hotels around Colombia —notably in the resort town of Melgar in central Colombia, where over a dozen staff members of the Russian embassy holidayed in 2017.
Allegedly, Operation CATEDRA also involved the interception of communications of at least two Russian diplomats. These were identified as Denis Viktorovich Khromov, who served as the second secretary at the Russian embassy in Bogota, as well as Aleksandr Nikolayevich Belousov, who in late 2020 was declared persona non grata and expelled by the Colombian government on charges of espionage. Colombian media said at the time that Belousov had been outed as an intelligence officer, following a two-year DNI operation codenamed ENIGMA.
The DNI also spied on at least 10 Cuban diplomats and other members of the embassy of Cuba in Bogota, according to the same reports. The operation, codenamed MATIAS, investigated alleged “Cuban interference” in Colombia, and took place while the Cuban government was hosting peace talks between the Colombian government of then-president Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the country’s largest militant groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
According to the reports, the DNI recruited a Cuban embassy worker, instructing her to “install [surveillance] devices and extract information from the building where control targets [were] located”. This eventually enabled the DNI to gain “access to security cameras and rooms throughout the building” of the Cuban embassy, the reports claim. Operations MATIAS and CATEDRA were reportedly concluded in 2019.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 January 2023 | Permalink
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Colombian spy chief claims intelligence-sharing with CIA continues despite dispute
December 1, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis 3 Comments
The political dispute between the two countries made headlines on November 11, when Colombian President Gustavo Petro (pictured) ordered his government’s intelligence agencies to “suspend intelligence sharing with US intelligence agencies”. The leftist leader made the announcement in response to the targeting of Colombian boats that Washington accuses of involvement in narcotics smuggling in the Caribbean. Two weeks earlier, the White House had personally accused Petro of participating in illicit drug trade activities and imposed sanctions on him and his immediate family.
Two days after the dramatic breakdown in intelligence cooperation between Colombia and the United States, Colombian officials claimed that Bogota would continue to share intelligence with international spy agencies, including those of the United States. Petro’s Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti, said that reports about the alleged breakdown in intelligence cooperation between the two countries were due to “a misunderstanding”. He added that Colombia would “continue working […] against drug trafficking and crime with the United States”.
Now the director of the DNI, Jorge Lemus, has told Agence France Presse that his agency’s relationship with the CIA had not been disrupted, despite the high-level political dispute between Colombia and the United States. The CIA “are collaborating a lot, and so are we”, said Lemus. The spy chief added that Colombian counternarcotics forces had destroyed “over 10,000” illicit cocaine labs in 2025 and were continuing operations against drug cartels “together with them [the CIA], hand-in-hand with them. We continue exactly as before […] not only with the CIA, but with all agencies”.
Lemus’ comments are reportedly the first high-level confirmation of Benedetti’s November 13 statement that intelligence cooperation between Colombia and the United States continued unabated despite the political falling-out between the two countries’ leaders.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 01 December 2025 | Permalink
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