Report Confirmed: U.S. Intelligence has Penetrated the Ecuadorian Police

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD

The uprising by elements of the Ecuadorian police against President Rafael Correa confirms an alarming report, released in 2008, on the infiltration of the Ecuadorian police by U.S. intelligence services, which indicated how many members of police forces had developed a "dependency" on the U.S. Embassy.

The report stated that police units "maintain an informal economic dependence on the United States for the payment of informants, training, equipment and operations."

The systematic use of techniques of corruption on the part of the CIA to acquire the "good will" of police officers was described and reported on numerous occasions by former CIA agent Philip Agee who, before leaving the ranks of the agency, was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Quito.

In his official report, released in late October 2008, Ecuador's Defense Minister Javier Ponce, revealed how U.S. diplomats were involved in corrupting the police and also officers of the Armed Forces.

Confirming the fact, the headquarters of the Ecuadorian Police then announced that it would penalize agents who worked with the U.S., while the U.S. Embassy proclaimed the "transparency" of its support for Ecuador.

"We work with the government of Ecuador, with the military, the police, for purposes very important for security," said U.S. Ambassador in Quito, Heather Hodges.

However, the diplomat told reporters she would not comment "on intelligence matters."

For her part, the press attaché, Marta Youth, flatly refused to refer to the complaints of the Ecuadorian government, including CIA involvement in a deal with Colombia that led to the Colombian military attack against the FARC, in Ecuadorian territory on March 1of that year.

The Army's intelligence chief, Mario Pazmino, had been dismissed for withholding information related to the attack on the FARC.

In recent months, U.S. officials appeared in Ecuador, under the pretext of deepening relations between Ecuador and the U.S.

Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere of the Department of State, Arturo Valenzuela, visited and re-visited President Correa, with a view to a visit by Chancellor Hillary Clinton.

Valenzuela was accompanied by Tedd Stern, "special representative for climate change," also known for his affinity with the CIA.