Pallade Veneta - Colombia spy chief says working 'hand in hand' with CIA despite row

"They are collaborating a lot, and so are we," Jorge Lemus, head of the National Intelligence Directorate, said in a rare interview, seeking to scotch talk of a rupture with the US spy agency.

Decades of close security cooperation between Colombia and the United States were upended last month when Washington slapped sanctions on Gustavo Petro, accusing the guerrilla-turned leftist president of aiding drug traffickers.

Petro responded by lambasting Donald Trump's "murder" of alleged traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and declaring that Colombia would no longer share intelligence with the United States.

That threat was later rowed back by Petro's aides. But Lemus's comments are the first high-level confirmation that intelligence cooperation continues unabated despite the diplomatic rancor.

Lemus said Colombia had destroyed 10,000 cocaine labs this year and operations are still being carried out "many times together with them, hand in hand with them."

Experts had warned that a break in intelligence cooperation could spark a surge in cocaine exports to the United States and strengthen the hand of cartels.

Several Colombian ex-military and intelligence bosses had told AFP Petro's threat to cut intelligence sharing was "absurd" and "makes no sense."

One former US intelligence official said information gleaned from human sources by Colombian officers was often vital in supporting American eavesdropping and satellite intelligence.

Lemus insisted that cooperation continues "not only with the CIA, but with all agencies, they have various. With all of the US intelligence agencies, it remains completely fluid," he said.

"We continue exactly as before," he added. "At the end of the day, we are both fighting against drug trafficking".

- No CIA leak -

Lemus, himself a former guerrilla, was appointed by Petro earlier this year.

In recent weeks, his powerful agency has been rocked by accusations that a senior spy colluded with guerrilla groups, helping them to buy arms and evade detection.

Lemus told AFP that the operative in question, Wilmar Mejia, had been suspended from duty pending investigation.

At the same time, he argued that Mejia had been an excellent spy who had rose quickly through the ranks and that the evidence against him may have been "staged."

Local media have published alleged chats between Mejia, an army general, and a guerrilla commander of a FARC splinter group that opposed the 2016 peace process.

The Caracol TV report alleged that Mejia worked with the rebels to set up a security company that allowed them to travel undetected in armored vehicles and carry weapons.

Petro has claimed the information is false, accusing the CIA of being behind the leak.

Lemus denied the CIA was involved and said the president had "perhaps received incorrect information."

"No, we don't support it [this accusation], and the president also knows that the issue comes from other sources."

F.Abruzzese--PV