The Egmont Group, set up to fight money laundering, said it suspended Colombia’s access to its global information-sharing platform after President Gustavo Petro had shared classified information.
The group stated that the Colombian government would no longer have access to the secure network used by the group to share data on financial crimes. The measure will remain in place while the investigation continues.
Earlier this month, Petro read information from a document that in 2021, the Colombian government, then headed by Iván Duque, paid $11 million in cash to an Israeli company to purchase Pegasus spyware. Petro made the revelation during a nationally televised speech where many expected him to discuss the truckers’ strike instead.
Pegasus can collect information from mobile phones undetected and control the mobile phone’s camera and microphones. The software was developed by an Israeli company and has been used to target more than 50,000 politicians, journalists, and human rights activists.
At least a dozen governments used Pegasus, according to a report published by Amnesty International and 18 media organisations in 2021. Security analysts argued that Colombia’s exclusion of the Egmont Group from the information-sharing platform weakened the country’s ability to detect illicit transactions by drug trafficking groups and other criminal organisations.
On Monday, Petro defended its decision to declassify sensitive information, saying he did so to protect the nation’s interests.
This is the price of truth.
