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The Real Colombia Comes To LIght

Scandal Links Colombian Government to Paramilitaries, Overshadowing Demobilization Successes
Mike Ceaser | Bio | 09 Feb 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive

BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- For years, paramilitary death squads and guerrillas waged a campaign of terror and violence against the indigenous Kankuamo people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northeastern Colombia. Their goal was to seize coca plantations, control narcotrafficking routes and profit from large infrastructure projects.

In Kankuamo areas, the paramilitaries would gather the people together to watch as they brutally killed someone, or tossed their victims in the road to be run over by cars.

Now, however, many of those paramilitary leaders are in jail, facing harsh penalties and potentially large fines that will serve as reparations to their victims' families as part of a demobilization process that has seen more than 30,000 members of the death squads lay down their arms since 2003.

But a wider scandal implicating ruling-party politicians in the activities of the death squads threatens to overshadow the successes of the demobilization, and could unhinge the strong relationship between the administration of conservative President Alvaro Uribe and the United States, which contributes some $700 million annually to Colombia's battle against narcotrafficking.

Those funds could be in jeopardy now that the U.S. Congress is in the hands of the Democrats, who have historically placed a greater emphasis on the protection of human rights than their Republican counterparts, who saw economic and military ties as key to the relationship between the United States and Colombia.

"I think there'll be more pressure on Uribe to clean up Colombian politics," said Michael Shifter, an analyst with Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "I think there will be a lot more scrutiny and more demands for accountability."
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The paramilitary armies were born in the 1980s from a need by cattle ranchers and drug lords to protect themselves against the leftist guerrillas wreaking havoc on rural areas beyond the control of the Colombian authorities. Over the ensuing decades, however, the paramilitaries have transformed themselves into major narcotraffickers and engage in kidnapping and extortion. They are now seen as responsible for many of the worst massacres committed during Colombia's four-decade civil war.

Under the demobilization process and in exchange for full confessions, paramilitaries will spend no more than eight years in jail for crimes that include the murder of more than 100 Kankuamo people. They will be protected from being extradited to the United States in a deal that has earned the scorn of human rights groups. The groups have roundly criticized the demobilization as a weak process that metes out light punishments on paramilitary leaders, all the while permitting their outlaw armies to continue functioning.

Daniel Maestre, a community leader of the Kankuamo and official with the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, holds little hope of seeing justice, and financial reparations, for his people.

The paramilitaries may have been demobilized, he says, but they have quickly developed new organizations with different names. Stashes of ill-gotten wealth are sheltered in the names of their family members so that paramilitary leaders can claim poverty and avoid reparations.

"The law says the paramilitaries are obligated to compensate their victims, but the paramilitaries say they have no resources," said Maestre.

Salvatore Mancuso, the leader of one of the two militias to terrorize the Kankuamo is one who claims poverty, according to Maestre; "(He) says he only has a little ranch and a pair of cows," when the reality is that Mancuso is one of the wealthier cattle ranchers in northwestern Colombia.

The government has defended the demobilization process, noting the prison sentences are harsher than were imposed during the 1990s on leftist guerrillas, some of whom now sit in Congress and are some of the harshest critics of the current operations.

Links between the paramilitaries and politicians allied with the Uribe administration were first revealed when a computer and electronic records were seized by authorities from the notorious death squad leader, Rodrigo Tovar, whose territory stretched down Colombia's Pacific coast to include the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Records showed that not only had Tovar contracted peasants to present themselves as demobilizing paramilitaries but that his death squads had assassinated more than 500 people during the peace negotiations.

Most damning were records that detailed cooperative relationships between politicians in the area and Tovar's death squads. The computer records helped to indict three senators now jailed and awaiting trial on charges that include membership in and fundraising for a paramilitary group, and helping to plot the massacre of peasants. Dozens of other political figures, including mayors, governors and members of the foreign service, have also been implicated in what is known as the "parapolitician scandal."

But while nearly all of the politicians under indictment or suspicion are Uribe supporters, the president himself has not been directly accused. And while his government has proclaimed its support for full investigations and punishment for those found guilty, the administration continues to cultivate relations with, and seek votes from, the congressmen being investigated.

Throughout his career, Uribe has been dogged by allegations he has paramilitary ties, and this time around is no exception. But such allegations have done little to hurt his popularity: Uribe was reelected by a wide margin in May due to security improvements and a perception that he has seized the offensive in the war against leftist guerrillas and the narcotrafficking trade with which the illegal armies finance themselves.

A recent wave of guerrilla attacks and an uninterrupted flow of cocaine, however, show that Uribe still has his work cut out for him, even as he struggles to maintain the important relationship with the United States. An important test of those ties came last week with the visit to Bogotá by a high-level U.S. delegation.

Felipe Cardona, a political science professor at the private University of the Andes in Bogotá, says that in other democratic nations the parapolitician scandal would hurt the president, but in Colombia a deep-seated cultural admiration for strong presidents and a disdain for Congress shifts all the blame onto the latter.

"In Colombia there's always been a tradition of excessive 'presidentialism,'" Cardona says, noting that during similar scandals in the 1980s and 1990s members of Congress were hurt while the presidents emerged relatively unscathed.

"We have a respect, an admiration for the president, and exactly the opposite for Congress," said Cardona. "We tend to concentrate all of the bad in politics on Congress."

In fact, amid the revelations of the current scandal, a leading business magnate and close Uribe ally floated the idea of amending the constitution to permit Uribe to be reelected to a third term. Uribe's supporters already amended the Constitution once to permit a single reelection.

"Uribe says what people want to hear," said Cardona. "In the end, the people are inclined to ignore those problems, as long as Uribe continues being Uribe. It's more proof that the Colombian people are willing to give up democracy if they believe that this will fulfill their immediate interests. A charismatic figure is capable of that."

The parapolitician scandal had faded from the headlines during Congress's Christmas recess but reappeared in January with a vengeance as Mancuso resumed his testimony at a courtroom in Medellin.

Mancuso has named more than 200 "subversives" killed by his death squads, though authorities estimate the total killed are in the thousands. Mancuso also testified that senior military officials provided intelligence and even helped his paramilitary armies commit massacres, confirming longstanding accusations of military-paramilitary collaboration.

Such collaboration, or military indifference to the murderous rampages by the paramilitaries, was common in the Kankuamo territory, according to Maestre.

"There is a complete complicity between the armed forces and the paramilitaries," he said, expressing frustration that only a fraction of the killings committed against his people have even been investigated and that the Kankuamo are still being harassed and threatened by the paramilitaries.

Resigned to what they see as a miscarriage of justice at home, the Kankuamo people are nonetheless finding other avenues for their campaign against the paramilitary violence, taking their cases to international courts.

But without an overhaul of Colombia's political and social system, the risk of paramilitary activity for communities like the Kankuamo will continue forever, says Alfredo Rangel, head of the Security and Democracy think tank in Bogotá.

"Colombia's war hasn't ended. . . . The weak state continues to exist and narcotrafficking is worse than ever," he said. "If those factors continue, you're going to have to continue dealing with paramilitaries."

Mike Ceaser is a freelance journalist based in Bogotá.Also in Valledupar so now Mr.Hollywood and gacieto you know who colombiamike is and I only speak the true facts in Colombia and dont choose sides only the plight of the Colombian people.

By (Deleted user) on Feb 9, 2007, 19:21 in Politics & the war.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:02:

A crock of sh*t & nothing more: "Democrats, who have historically placed a greater emphasis on the protection of human rights than their Republican counterparts,"

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:03:

in the eyes of the liberal media only

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:04:

dems = more government intrusion republic = more personal responsibility.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

billyb says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:10:

Last time I looked, Lincoln was a republican.. but then again all pols suck.

BillyB

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:12:

what's that got to do with: Festival International?

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:24:

What does this have to do with hookers?

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:58:

mr colombiamike tuochet, y F-O.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

billyb says on Feb 9, 2007, 22:59:

Gale" i thought Mike was going to report from... Lafayatte. And there goes somebody bringing up the 2 cents worth, when we know it's less than that ;)

BillyB

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:00:

mucho amor por las farc y por jesus christo. you're far way and above most, senor colombia "I don't wanna be like" mike.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:01:

maybe he'll come to de Festival. Rumba.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:02:

maybe he went to Lincoln.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

billyb says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:04:

Nebraska? I think he just got back from... picking up his 6 pack of Costeñitas.

BillyB

0 funny, 0 helpful.

billyb says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:10:

Mike, I'm glad to see that you dislike opression.. no matter wether it's from the left or the right. Sincerely, have a good trip.

BillyB

0 funny, 0 helpful.

billyb says on Feb 9, 2007, 23:14:

They are all to blame, let's just agree that we both... hope Colombia finds peace.

BillyB

0 funny, 0 helpful.

aztec says on Feb 10, 2007, 09:40:

what Bush admin.Has done to restore after "Katrina" colombiamike Perhaps you have overlooked that the mayor of NO and the governor of the State are both democrats.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

goin_south says on Feb 10, 2007, 13:37:

muchas gracias, aztec...y, ciao, colombia'wannabelike'mike.

cm_stfu!

Why Not Colombia?..........Stay Tuned, for more.... utterly worthless, self-indulgent gobbets of nonsense.

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