Key Us Ally 'helped Colombian Traffickers'

The CIA has obtained evidence that the head of Colombia's army, a key US ally in Latin America, has collaborated with right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

General Mario Montoya allegedly worked closely with illegal militias during a military crackdown against leftwing guerrillas in 2002 which left dozens of people dead or missing.

News of the CIA report, which was leaked to the Los Angeles Times, was expected to add to pressure on the Bush administration to reduce its annual £350m in aid to Colombia, most of which goes to the military. It will also engulf President Álvaro Uribe in more political turmoil over his government's ties to the paramilitaries.

According to the intelligence report, Gen Montoya teamed up with paramilitaries during an operation that deployed 3,000 police and soldiers in a Medellín shantytown controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a leftwing rebel group which has waged a decades-long civil war. Government critics say at least 14 people died and 46 disappeared during Operation Orion.

The army chief, according to the CIA's unidentified source, signed documents detailing the cooperation between his forces, the police and paramilitary leader Fabio Jaramillo, a subordinate of Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, a militia leader in Medellín. Murillo took over the area's cocaine trade after the death of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. He is in a Colombian jail facing extradition to the US.

Gen Montoya has worked closely with the Pentagon, serving as an instructor at a US-sponsored military training centre and running a new anti-drugs taskforce.

A spokesman for Gen Montoya would not comment on the report. But speaking before the leak, the vice-president, Francisco Santos, defended him from rumours of paramilitary links. "General Montoya is a trooper. I don't think he was involved in anything like that - I'm sure of it."