As a growing number of Colombian government
officials are investigated for ties to illegal paramilitary terrorists, a
1979 report from the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá raises new questions about the
paramilitary past of the current army commander, Gen. Mario Montoya Uribe.

The declassified cable, the focus of a new article being published today on the Web site of Colombia's Semana magazine, answers long-simmering questions about a shadowy Colombian terror ogranization responsible for a number of violent acts in the late-1970s and early-80s. Long suspected of ties to the Colombian military, the cable confirms that the American Anticommunist Alliance (Triple-A) was secretly created and staffed by members of Colombian military intelligence in a plan authorized by then-army commander Gen. Jorge Robledo Pulido.

Gen. Montoya was first tied to Triple-A by five former military intelligence operatives who detailed the group's operations in the Mexican newspaper El Día. The new evidence tying the Army's 'Charry Solano' intelligence battalion to the terror group is likely to refocus attention on Montoya's role in that unit. The new information follows the publication in March of a secret CIA report linking Montoya to a paramilitary terror operation in 2002-03 while commander of an army brigade in Medellín.

Along with previous Archive postings, the article, also published in English on the Archive's Web site, is part of an effort by the Colombia documentation project to uncover declassified sources on Colombia's armed conflict, particularly the illegal paramilitary terror groups now engaged in a controversial demobilization and reparations process with the government.