Venezuela: A Matter of National Security
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La Tercera, February 29, 2024
DEAR DIRECTOR:
Regarding the column by Juan Ignacio Brito titled as this letter, I fully agree that Venezuela is a matter of national security, but I disagree that it is the responsibility of the intelligence services of the Armed Forces.
Chile has three major intelligence organizations. The ANI, which reports to the Ministry of the Interior, the Armed Forces and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMCO), and the police. All are regulated by Law 19,974 of 2004, which establishes very clear limits on the actions of the Armed Forces and EMCO both within Chile and outside the country.
It is clear, and I believe we all agree, that the law needs to be updated to ultimately achieve a robust and effective intelligence system that meets the needs of the times and the threats we face. We need to allocate a significant budget to the ANI and a broader staffing. We need to appoint individuals like Vice Admiral Jordán or Rear Admiral Aranda, who have extensive experience and knowledge in the field. We need an intelligence service capable of performing the functions of MI6 in intelligence, MI5 in counterintelligence, and GCHQ in communications and cybersecurity, as done in the United Kingdom.
What we do not need are intelligence services operating outside their legal framework, which is something that can be inferred from Mr. Brito’s column, who assigns responsibilities to defense institutions regarding the Venezuelan case, characterizing their performance as a debacle. The intelligence services of the Armed Forces and Defense are legally limited in what they can do in terms of counterintelligence within national territory, and the same applies when they operate outside of Chile.
While I agree that there was an intelligence failure in the case of Lieutenant Ojeda, the reasons lie in the current law, in the intelligence capabilities of the police, and in the direction the government provides in these matters.
Richard J. Kouyoumdjian Inglis
Vice President of AthenaLab
Source: La Tercera
