The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, signed a decree this Friday by which he orders declassify information from the defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS)who illegally spied on journalists, judges and human rights defenders, among others.
(Read more: President Petro announces that he will change the director of the National Police)
The decree, which gives way to lift the confidentiality of the intelligence, counterintelligence and reserved expenses files of the DAS, It was signed during an act in which the Colombian State apologized to the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (Cajar) for more than three decades of “persecution, harassment and illegal intelligence” in compliance with a ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court).
“The declassification of the DAS files begins now. It is not until June” as planned, Petro said from the Plaza de Armas of the Casa de Nariño, headquarters of the Government. The president explained that the files to be declassified rest in the General Archive of the Nation and He said there are names that will not be published for security reasons.
“There is a whole process of organization, of anonymization, where there is a committee for this, because there are names that should not appear, not of the guilty, but for other reasons that are also governed and that care must be taken with anonymization,” he stressed.
(More news: Presentation by Judge Jorge Ibáñez proposes declaring the pension reform unenforceable)
🔴The President @PetroGustavo signed the decree “by which the confidentiality of the intelligence, counterintelligence and reserved expenses files of the extinct Administrative Department of Security (DAS) is declassified and lifted.” pic.twitter.com/Ez69HjxVY6
— Colombian Presidency 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) October 17, 2025
(More news: Criticism rains down on the budget assigned by Petro to the regions)
The decree seeks to guarantee access to information and transparency in the investigation processes and institutional memory related to the activities of the DAS, which It was abolished in November 2011 by the then president Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018).
During the Government of his predecessor Álvaro Uribe, The DAS carried out illegal espionage on journalists, high court judges, opposition politicians, foreign personalities and human rights defenders, among others.
The DAS had its maximum level of discredit coinciding with the two consecutive Uribe governments, between 2002 and 2010.
(Read more: Presidency publishes resume for the position of new commissioner before the CRC)
EFE
