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Colombia investigates Santos email hacking
by Staff Writers
Bogota (AFP) Feb 24, 2014


Colombia's Santos says thousands of his emails hacked
Bogota (AFP) Feb 23, 2014 - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed Sunday that more than a thousand of his personal emails had been hacked, saying unknown parties were trying to slander him as he seeks another term.

The El Tiempo daily reported Saturday several of the accessed emails were related to the possible, but never completed, purchase of some works of art.

Others were said to deal with school tuition payments for his daughter, Maria Antonia.

In response to the hacking, the government has taken additional electronic security measures.

"My personal email account and those of certain members of my family were intercepted, a criminal activity that I consider without hesitation to be serious, unusual and unacceptable," Santos said in a statement.

The president is campaigning for a second term ahead of elections due to take place May 25, and he claimed the hackers were "motivated by political reasons. This will be investigated so that we can punish those responsible."

"In the coming days and until the campaign is over, additional information may be brought forward in an attempt to tarnish my good name and that of my government," Santos added.

The revelations come amid other reports that an army intelligence unit had spied on the Colombian government's negotiating team at peace talks with FARC rebels in Cuba.

The talks, which began more than a year ago in the capital Havana, aim to put an end to the longest-running conflict in Latin America, which has left hundreds of thousands dead in over a half century.

Colombian prosecutors Monday opened an investigation after President Juan Manuel Santos said more than 1,000 of his personal emails had been hacked, as spying allegations mar peace talks with the FARC rebels.

Santos claimed unknown parties were trying to slander him ahead of the May presidential vote, accusing them of breaking into his own email account as well as those of his family.

Prosecutors said Monday they will probe whether the suspected hackers are linked to a special Colombian army intelligence unit accused of spying on its own government's negotiating team at peace talks with FARC rebels in Cuba.

Those talks resumed in Havana Monday, with the rebels expressing their "great mistrust" of the intelligence unit's alleged spy efforts, saying it also monitors the FARC.

The disclosures of electronic eavesdropping touched off a political scandal in Colombia, with Santos declaring that the spying was "totally unacceptable" and warning that "dark forces" were intent on sabotaging the peace process. The government is investigating.

But the FARC, which has between 7,000 and 8,000 fighters, accused the Santos government of denouncing the spying in order to blunt the impact of its revelation.

The peace talks have been underway with the FARC for more than a year to end a half-century of hostilities.

Meanwhile, Colombia's second biggest group of leftist rebels, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, said Monday it captured a Colombian police officer during a government drug raid and promised to free him soon.

The 19-year-old police officer was captured in the Antioquia region, a major center of cocaine production, and was "in good health" and being treated in accordance with human rights protocols, the rebels said in a statement.

The ELN, which has about 2,500 fighters, did not say exactly when the police officer was taken.

And in central Colombia, a helicopter crash killed four soldiers on Sunday night, the army said in a statement Monday. The soldiers were conducting "military operations" in the region near Mesetas, it added, without giving any details.

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