"Demobilized" Paras as Politcal Candidates: Democracy at Work or More Corruption??

juancegomez says on Jul 24, 2007, 15:05:

I don't like it, if you want me to opine about it, but it's not necessarily an "either or" situation.

Cutting off some legal corners for the sake of time...the key here is that unlike the infamous paramilitary leaders jailed at Itagui, there were no specific charges against the thousands of apparent "rank and file" individuals who participated in the demobilization process.

Not to mention that, among other things, there isn't enough prison capacity in the entire country to jail all of these apparent "rank and file" individuals, even if one wanted to do so. It's a fact.

So, skipping several legal details, in essence they seem to be legally identical to other Colombians, even if their past is rightfully suspicious. Leaving aside all the other differences that would be worth mentioning under other conditions, this same thing happened in the cases of guerrilla groups such as the M-19, EPL and others: you had literally hundreds of people that were, essentially, legally free to do whatever they wanted.

In this particular case....whether they are actually demobilized or not is extremely hard to tell on an individual basis as well (some will be, others won't be, etc), so I'm not going to assume much in that regard either.

Still, I'll say it again: under the current circumstances, I don't like it.

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Miguel_Clavo says on Jul 24, 2007, 15:30:

I guess the strategy was to cut the head off of the snake, but here, it seems the snake has an ample supply of replacement heads.......the snake did not die. It just calls itself a black eagle among other names.....Infiltration of government offices in cahoots with criminal organizations is a recipe for disaster. The interests of the few will be forced on the many......

i generally like Uribe, but i cant believe noone predicted the reincarnation of immobilized paracos into straight up criminal gangs.....no one can be that nieve and blind.....

"I would rather die living life, than to live a dying life."........ Oh, and my PM is always ON. Great Bumper Sticker: "Home of the Free, Because of the Brave"

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juancegomez says on Jul 24, 2007, 16:51:

It's not like they can't use any internet café or private PC, Vup, so that's frankly unnecessary.

Miguel_Clave: Obviously, we still have more than a few snakes around, despite Uribe's claims of "overcoming" paramilitarism.

As for the criminal gangs, they're a mix of everything (undemobilized, re-mobilized, new people, etc) and lots of analysts did warn about it from the beginning. It looks like, at the very least, the Uribe government just didn't give the problem (or the entire process, for that matter) the thought it needed, and improvised to a very heavy degree (why, of course, is open to debate).

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juancegomez says on Jul 24, 2007, 16:52:

Miguel_Clavo, not Miguel_Clave (edit button, oh how you are missed...heh)

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Tinto (Moderator) says on Jul 24, 2007, 17:01:

Where there's a will there's a way.

It doesn't freeze in Colombia (except at the mountain tops) so all you need is a flat field, a bunch of electrified chain link fence and a few guard towers with machine guns. Whammo-Presto, you've got yourself one big open air prison for all of the AUC. Prison capacity problem solved.

And to keep them occupied, I'd put them to work on a chain gang cutting sugar cane or uprooting coca plants. With luck, they'd fight and argue a lot and hack themselves to death.

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