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interesting article about president uribe

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jun 17, 7:58 PM ET

BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia - In his five years as president, Alvaro Uribe has repeatedly denied accusations that he's been cozy with Colombia's murderous right-wing militias, whose thousands of victims include suspected rebel sympathizers and union activists.

Yet newly uncovered video of his 2001 campaign shows him shaking hands with a militia leader who was arrested only weeks later on suspicion of involvement in multiple murders, and is now a fugitive with a price on his head. It's the latest headache for the law-and-order president, who has seen one ally after another jailed for allegedly colluding with the outlawed militias.

"I haven't known the paramilitaries, haven't been friends with them, haven't had contact with them," Uribe declared on national television on April 19.

The militia chief in the video, which bears an Oct. 31, 2001, time stamp, was identified by three people familiar with him — including human rights activists — as Fremio Sanchez Carreno. Sanchez, better known as "Comandante Esteban," had just finished spearheading the bloody militia takeover of this steamy oil-refining city on Colombia's main river when Uribe met with him and about a dozen other people.

The Associated Press obtained the video independently and to confirm its authenticity, traveled to Barrancabermeja, where human rights activists identified the person standing behind Uribe as Comandante Esteban — the same militia leader who had signed letters threatening local human rights and labor leaders with death in the months before the meeting. The activists asked not to be identified for their own safety because militias remain active in the area.

While the video does not show Uribe speaking with Sanchez, the image of them together in a private meeting further enmeshes the president — the Bush administration's staunchest ally in Latin America — in a scandal that has alarmed congressional Democrats, who want to cut some of Colombia's $600 million in annual military aid.

The video also shows Sanchez receiving a diploma from the region's top paramilitary leaders during a ceremony timestamped Nov. 25, 2000, with the camera zooming in on his "Comandante Esteban" nametag.

"He was the paramilitary boss of this entire zone," said David Ravelo, who runs the local human rights group CREDHOS. "He was very well-known."

The AP obtained the video from a person who would like to see Uribe toppled and provided it on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. This person said the video was recorded by paramilitaries and said the Uribe-Sanchez encounter occurred in the city council's chambers in Puerto Berrio, a paramilitary stronghold an hour from Barrancabermeja.

One of the rights activists said a person who attended the meeting confirmed Saturday that it took place in Puerto Berrio and said Sanchez had all but obliged the participants to go.

Authorities offered a $5,000 reward Friday for Sanchez's arrest on murder charges, saying he continues to lead a criminal band. The Colombian government didn't describe the crimes, but human rights activists in the area say the band is one of many paramilitary units that have reconstituted themselves despite an Uribe-engineered amnesty that was supposed to require them to disband.

Meanwhile, Uribe aides say the president cannot be expected to know about everyone he meets.

"The president has nothing to do with the possible criminal acts of people who for one reason or another appear in the millions of photographs and hours of video that have been taken during his more than 33 years of public life," a Friday communique from Uribe's spokesman said.

Local human rights activists say Uribe could be expected to know that the local leaders in the videotaped meeting answered to the privately bankrolled outlaw army that had just secured control of their city — a takeover that helped persuade the State Department to add Sanchez's paramilitary umbrella group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia — known by its initials AUC in Spanish — to its list of international terror organizations only weeks beforehand.

Opponents contend Uribe, beginning as governor of the neighboring state of Antioquia in the 1990s, promoted landowner-bankrolled militias as a means of eradicating Colombia's half-century-old leftist insurgency and ending a plague of kidnappings and extortion targeting ranchers and other businessmen.

Twelve of Uribe's allies in Colombia's Congress have been jailed since late last year on charges of colluding with the paramilitaries to gain office or other favors. Uribe's former domestic security chief is among his confidants accused of working with paramilitaries, and Colombia's foreign minister stepped down in February after her senator brother was arrested in the scandal on charges including kidnapping.

Uribe's press secretary posted an appeal on the presidential Web site Friday, asking the media to "abstain from making malevolent insinuations," after the video's existence was first reported by The Miami Herald's Spanish-language paper, El Nuevo Herald.

It shows the local leaders pleading with Uribe, who would be elected the following May, to campaign publicly in their city. But Uribe seemed hesitant, telling them: "Barranca is a very delicate case for me for innumerable circumstances, and I'll have to give this the most delicate treatment."

Paramilitaries assassinated 600 people in 2001 in Barrancabermeja, said Ravelo.

The killings included two dozen union activists as paramilitaries destroyed the local social security workers, taxi and bus drivers unions, said Oscar Sanchez, who leads the local chapter of the national oil workers union and like Ravelo has a clutch of state-provided bodyguards.

According to the DAS state security agency, the comandante was arrested Dec. 8, 2001 for allegedly leading a Feb. 28, 1999 massacre in Barrancabermeja, in which 11 people were killed by hooded paramilitaries who opened fire on a crowd at a fiesta. He remained jailed until July 2005, when a court released him for reasons authorities could not immediately explain.

After seeing the video, Daniel Kovalik, an attorney for the United Steelworkers union, wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, questioning Uribe's seriousness about labor rights in Colombia, where more than 800 trade unionists have been killed in the last six years by government count.

"It stands to reason Mr. Uribe must have known that he was meeting with members of the AUC," wrote Kovalik, whose lawsuit on behalf of survivors of three coal miner union leaders killed in 2001 alleges that Alabama-based Drummond Ltd. paid paramilitaries to commit the murders.

By sancocho1 on Jun 18, 2007, 00:25 in Politics & the war.

scotty says on Jun 18, 2007, 00:31:

means nothing Like they say he cant be expected to know who every person is that he has his picture taken with or whose hands he shakes. After all he is a politician and politicians shake thousands of hands and meet thousands of people.
Sounds kinda like a left wing witch hunt to me?

Get Rhythm, when you got the blues. Johnny Cash

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sancocho1 says on Jun 18, 2007, 00:34:

fuck em all right wing and left wing no diffrence to me.

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Frank Rizzo says on Jun 18, 2007, 00:34:

well, the problem i see is that if the democrats get their way, they'll cut aid to colombia by probably 1/2. If this happens well see the peso at 3000 and we'll have a very dangerous colombia.

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scotty says on Jun 18, 2007, 01:56:

right Thats what its all about politics. the libs want to discredit Uribe, we saw it with Gore, we see it with congress threatening to cut off Colombia, and now they are trying to damage the mans rep. Its all about politics.
Who cares whose hand he shook or whatever, but you can count on the liberal media to make a big deal out of it.

Get Rhythm, when you got the blues. Johnny Cash

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miamimike says on Jun 18, 2007, 02:14:

I fail to understand your Logic&Comments Scotty and Here is why I would think any Politician, on the right or left here in the USA, would like to get Colombia on its feet as soon as Possible and off US Aid. US Taxpayers should demand that! US Aid to any nation, is not meant to contnue in perpetuity, like forever. So its to the advantage of whatever party is in power to wean Colombia off the Teat of Uncle Sam whenever its feasible.Maybe that time is is close, the Peso is strong, lots of foreign investment pouring in, Security is much better in many parts of the country. That sounds like a lame excuse to infer Uribe is unaware of who he's meeting with when he's shown in the Picture with a High Level Capo such as Sanchez.If he truly wasn't aware of who he was meeting with in this case, he should have been!!! I can't believe these Politicians when they play the Dumb Act about not knowing who they were going to meet with. In Uribe's case all the moreso as he has had how many attempts on his life?? 10-20 attempts and you mean to tell me when he is headed off to a meeting he is unaware of who the intended person is? No way, not for someone as Calculating as Uribe,,,That Dog won't hunt,,,

Avatar Legend: Bush "If any of you Reporters are wondering, it was a Size 10"

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Frank Rizzo says on Jun 18, 2007, 02:33:

Well, Mike...I don't ever see an end to aid to colombia in our lifetime. I really don't think that the aid is ever really intended to be a temporary thing. It's global politics, it's financing private wars in other areas of the world, or just financing counter-intel. I'm not a politician and don't really care for politics.

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arthur brode (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jun 18, 2007, 08:13:

http://www.calirentals.net/

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cali373 says on Jun 18, 2007, 20:50:

The picture means nothing, we all know Uribe is cozy with Paramilitaries. We don't need video´s or pictures.

Smile if you are a thinker!

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Frank Rizzo says on Jun 18, 2007, 21:22:

cali373, i agree we have rummy shaking hands with saddam. I mean what does that mean...nothing!!! It's politics and you're friend today is your enemy tomorrow.......just politics to cut aid.

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Miguel_Clavo says on Jun 18, 2007, 21:25:

i agree.....photos like that are smear tactics only, and as such are basically worthless.....people shake hands everywhere and all the time....does not prove anything...

Just my opinion...

Miguel_Clavo =)....Colombia es pasión!

"I would rather die living life, than to live a dying life."

"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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Sr Tertius says on Jun 22, 2007, 18:43:

Evidence means nothing.

Now, ideological preconceptions, that's gold!

"When the finger points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger" (Chinese proverb)

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