Abstract

RIVERA RUGELES, Juan Camilo. Endpoint to the legal limbo of the intelligence activities in Colombia?. Estud. Socio-Juríd [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.1, pp.139-164. ISSN 0124-0579.

Intelligence services have operated in Colombia for nearly 60 years without a regulatory framework that sets limits to their activities. Congress recently approved a bill, which has been for the most part endorsed by the Constitutional Court, aimed at addressing this historical omission. This paper reviews the appropriateness of the bill in connection with two specific aspects of intelligence services: the scope of secrecy and controls on their operations, in terms of the protection of the rights to privacy, access to information, and truth. The author's thesis is that the bill has some positive aspects regarding these two issues, but leaves substantial gaps that may lead intelligence services to stray from their responsibilities and use them to ignore people's rights.

Keywords : secret; access to information; right to privacy; intelligence activities; national security.

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