Colombian President Iván Duque during an interview with EL PAÍS on May 30, 2021 in Bogotá. Camilo Rozo
In April 2022, while Colombia awaited the decision of the International Court of Justice on border differences with Nicaragua, the General Command of the Armed Forces was preparing a document for President Iván Duque, which it described as “top secret”. The text is part of the army’s secret archives, hundreds of thousands of documents leaked by the hacktivist collective Guacamaya via Forbidden Stories, a consortium of journalists based in Paris to which EL PAÍS had access.
The document, which was sent with a “copy to the presidency,” warned of the presence of Nicaraguan intelligence officers on national territory and specifically in San Andrés and Providencia, the center of the border dispute. “Most likely, the structure, organization and operation of the Nicaraguan Army’s G2-11 already has a projection of cells in Colombia,” the intelligence department transmitted in the filing was quoted as “8. April 2022 Presidential Narrative.
“G.2-11 is the tactical designation given to an individual joining the Nicaraguan intelligence system to conduct fact-finding missions in states not affiliated with the regime and to project intelligence work in non-regime countries,” says the document for the executive branch.
He also made a historical summary of this group and assured that it works in relation to Russia, Cuba and Venezuela. “Nicaraguan intelligence worked with officers with little preparation and insufficient financial resources; but the support of the secret services of the other socialist countries strengthened the institution and it has increased its covert activities to penetrate or infiltrate state, private and social organizations of the same country, with a projection of countries not friends of the regime.” , reads in one of the sections.
In Nicaragua, analysts and security experts told the newspaper that intelligence in that country is “an impregnable wall” and little is known about these groups, but it is not surprising that they have operated in Colombia for a long time. Right now there is an earthquake in the Sandinista apparatus due to the arrest of the head of political intelligence, Daniel Ortega. Adolfo Marenco was ousted from his post in late 2022 and is now in El Chipote prison, the Sandinista regime’s worst prison.
The Colombian military document enshrined the strengthening of this group in President Daniel Ortega’s relations with Russia and Vladimir Putin. “Relations are focused on the diplomatic and military levels, these two countries share ongoing training and education through their intelligence agencies,” the Colombian military continued in its report.
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The intelligence analysis also defined G.2-11 as “a structural system of a tactical nature, articulated at the territorial level in areas and possible locations of enemy operations” and “whose task is to establish a core, search for information, field investigation, Exploring goals and building support networks”. On this basis, she concludes that she would already be operating in San Andrés and Providencia.
In the final point of the document, the Colombian military proposes intelligence lines or measures to continue the investigation. One of them is to identify the support that this group of organizations has in other countries, such as the Cuban G2, which Colombians say is “the guideline” for that of Nicaragua.
In April, President Iván Duque did not address this issue. On the 21st of that month, the International Court of Justice issued a verdict finding Colombia in violation of Nicaragua’s sovereign rights. The ruling called for Colombia to “immediately cease” fishing activities in Nicaraguan territory, which Daniel Ortega’s government celebrated. According to Colombian dispute experts, the judgment also said that the new measurements carried out by Managua were not in line with international law.
On the day of that decision, President Duque spoke about the verdict in San Andrés with a huge ship in the background. “The government ratifies the institutional mandate to defend the islands’ sovereignty and integrity,” he said. It added that “in no case does the presence of the Navy constitute a threat to use force, as Nicaragua claimed” and “that the court recognized Colombia’s right to move freely in the region to investigate transnational crimes and the to combat drug trafficking.
The discussion continued a month later when Ortega said Colombia did not want to fulfill the drug trafficking continuation ruling. Duque replied that he was a dictator and would defend Colombia’s sovereignty.
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