Bolivia's national police commander said Thursday that his own department's intelligence service had spied on politicians and journalists without his knowledge and angrily accused a subordinate of directing the “dirty work.”
The announcement by Gen. Miguel Vasquez was prompted by materials sent anonymously to several Bolivian news media this week, which appeared to document efforts to follow opposition state governors, a television reporter, and two congressmen aligned with President Evo Morales.
Vasquez, who has vowed to weed out corruption in Bolivia's police forces, demanded that the national police intelligence service Jose Luis Centellas be held accountable for the alleged covert operations. Centellas declined to comment to the press on Thursday.
“We will not permit information gathering to take advantage of citizens' security and persecute Bolivians,” Vasquez said.
Bolivian news media have reported that spying targets included Jose Quiroga, head of the opposition party Podemos; Cochabamba Gov. Manfred Reyes Villa; Morales-aligned Congressman Gonzalo Torrico; and a journalist with the anti-Morales television network Unitel.
The reports included blurry photos of sometimes unidentifiable figures getting in and out of cars, and listed nicknames supposedly used for the targets. Police agents allegedly referred to Quiroga, a former president of Bolivia, as “Pluto,” according to the newspaper La Razon.
Antonio Peredo, a senator from Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, downplayed the revelations.
“We all know there exists state security system, and that system has to keep up on the movements of political parties, unions,” Peredo said. “Everybody's done it.”
