COLOMBIA: ALLEGATIONS OF MASSIVE VOTE FRAUD LEAD TO PROSECUTION OF EX-CHIEF OF SECRET POLICE.

Jorge Noguera, the former head of the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), the national secret police agency, is facing charges that he helped the 2002 presidential campaign of President Alvaro Uribe gain 300,000 illicit votes. In November 2005, he had to resign from the DAS during a corruption scandal and shortly afterward was named consul to Milan, Italy. Noguera had to resign his post as consul in Milan and return to face investigations of vote fraud and much more serious allegations that he allowed paramilitary groups to infiltrate his agency, leaked intelligence to criminal organizations, misappropriated funds, and sought to violently destabilize the Venezuelan government. It is improbable, however, that the accusations against Noguera will substantively harm President Uribe's run for re-election.

Attorney General Mario Iguaran filed charges against Noguera on May 9, forcing the official to resign as consul. He had been a campaign chief for Uribe before he was named DAS head, when, the allegations say, he fabricated votes for his boss in seven departments along the northern coast. The fraud, if proven, would not invalidate Uribe's 2002 win, "but it would seriously diminish his legitimacy," according to a member of the Procuraduria General de la Nacion (PGN) who spoke to Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald.

The attorney general's decision lent credibility to the accusations against Noguera from his former friend and ex-chief of information for the DAS Rafael Garcia, now jailed in Bogota because of accusations that he erased information about drug traffickers from the agency's archives. Garcia said that in 2002 Noguera did work on fraudulent activities, which was backed by paramilitaries who promoted the Uribe candidacy. In those elections, Noguera was presidential campaign chief in the department of Magdalena, the epicenter of the scheme, says Garcia.

Garcia claims that the scam was ordered and financed by Rodrigo Tovar, alias Jorge 40, the head of one of the military wings of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC)--Colombia's main paramilitary umbrella organization. Jorge 40 supposedly held multiple "institutional" meetings with Noguera during that period.

Noguera denies Garcia's accusations. "I want to reply before the courts without the government's backing," said Noguera. "I alone will assume responsibility."

Minister of the Interior and Justice Sabas Pretelt said on Radio Caracol, "With this avalanche of accusations, how...

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