Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El-Aissami said officers from Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency are operating clandestinely in his country to destabilize the government.

In a speech at the National Assembly, El-Aissami presented what he said were internal documents from the agency, known as DAS, detailing covert operations inside Venezuela as well as “counter-intelligence operations” in Ecuador and Cuba. Venezuela arrested two Colombian citizens last week near the border with Colombia and accused them of spying.

“This is serious information that proves the destabilizing actions promoted by the Colombian government against our country,” El-Aissami said in comments broadcast on Telesur. “The order was to corrupt and bribe local officials and make contact with leaders of the opposition.”

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated this year as President Hugo Chavez “froze” ties with Colombia to protest a deal to give the U.S. access to military bases for counter narcotics operations. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Chavez of funding Colombia’s biggest leftist guerrilla group and of supplying them with weapons.

Felipe Munoz, head of the DAS, told Colombia’s W Radio that the two nationals charged with spying have nothing to do with the agency.

Foreign Operations

A statement published on the DAS Web site on Oct. 27 says the agency prohibits officials from operating in other countries. It called on Venezuela to release a DAS official who was arrested in September in the city of Maracaibo during a holiday as a guest of a Venezuelan immigration official.

Chavez, speaking on state television, said Colombia sent the spies at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency to destabilize the nation.

Colombia’s Ambassador to Caracas, Maria Luisa Chiappe, said on Colombia’s Radio Caracol that she has no information of DAS agents in Venezuela.

The DAS internal documents, which El-Aissami said were obtained by Venezuelan intelligence services, named top government officials, the U.S. Embassy in Bogota and the CIA as being aware of the operations in Venezuela.

“This is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said.

Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez has also hinted that 11 Colombians killed last week in Venezuela may have been involved in espionage. He didn’t elaborate.

Tension with Colombia has led Venezuela to curb imports from the country, its second-biggest trading partner after the U.S., and to seek to diversify commerce with allies in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia. Colombian exports to Venezuela plunged 45.7 percent in August from a year earlier, according to data from the Colombian statistics institute.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net; Helen Murphy in Bogota at Hmurphy1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 29, 2009 16:52 EDT