Ex-Colombia secret service chief arrested

BOGOTA, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The former head of Colombia's secret service has been arrested in connection with the 1989 assassination of a presidential candidate, authorities said.

The Colombian public prosecutor's office said Gen. Miguel Alfredo Maza Marquez surrendered Tuesday after a police probe concluded he may have had a hand in the Aug. 18, 1989, slaying of Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento, who was shot while giving a speech, CNN reported.

As chief of the Administrative Security Department, or DAS, Maza was in charge of security for Galan that day. Colombian media reports indicated that investigators have asked Maza why he downgraded Galan's security in the days before his slaying, CNN said.

The U.S. broadcaster said Galan was a self-proclaimed enemy of Colombia's cocaine cartels, particularly the Medellin cartel led by Pablo Escobar, who was implicated as ordering the slaying.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe praised Galan Tuesday, marking the 20th anniversary of his death by saying, "Twenty years ago today, Colombians were moved to the deepest core of our beings with the assassination of ... Luis Carlos Galan."