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Uribe Administration; Death Squads And Paraco Brothers Bound By Blood
COLOMBIA'S POLITICAL MORASS
Ties may bind Colombian president to death squads
BOGOTA -- The arrest of President Alvaro Uribe's cousin on charges he colluded with right-wing death squads is significant not so much because of the family ties, but because the cousins' careers have been intricately intertwined from the moment they entered national politics more than two decades ago.
''Mario has been Uribe's main political partner for the past 20 years,'' said Colombian political analyst Pedro MedellÃn. ``This affects the government's ability to govern and deepens the crisis of legitimacy in Congress.''
Mario Uribe, a former senator and second cousin to the president, faces charges that allege he sought the political backing of paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso in 2002 just before national elections and of negotiating with another warlord the purchase of land in areas under paramilitary control.
He is the latest in a string of more than 30 members of Congress elected in 2006 who have been arrested for allegedly conspiring with the paramilitary death squads that used to control huge swaths of the nation. Another 30 lawmakers have been implicated in the scandal since it broke in late 2006.
If the cousins' political connection looks bad here, it looks even worse from Washington, said Michael Shifter, an analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank. The idea that the president's cousin could have been tangled up with drug-trafficking paramilitary death squads ''doesn't smell good,'' he said.
UNDER INVESTIGATION
Adding to the political mess is an acknowledgement by the president that he has been mentioned in an investigation involving paramilitary leaders accused of orchestrating the 1997 massacre of 15 peasants in El Aro, Antioquia, when he was governor of that western province.
In an interview with The Miami Herald this week, President Uribe declined to comment on his cousin's arrest, saying only that his government would ''move forward'' with the dismantling of rebel and paramilitary groups. Uribe added that he will not interfere with the legal process but said it is fair to ''debate'' the matter within the three branches of government.
''This country was under the control of guerrillas and paramilitaries five years ago,'' Uribe said. ``This country has seen that this government has defeated the paramilitaries, has jailed them; that this government has debilitated the guerrillas; that this government has advanced enormously.''
Uribe added that his government's nearly six-year tenure should be evaluated on its commitment to defeat terrorism and guarantee liberties. ''Judge us on the results,'' he said.
''The problem here has been that politics had been penetrated by the guerrillas and the paramilitaries.'' Uribe said.
For opponents of a Colombia-U.S. free trade deal now stalled in Congress, the arrest ''gives them an additional argument,'' Shifter said. ``Things were already difficult for Colombia. This will make things more difficult.''
The Bush administration's dogged efforts to pass the free trade agreement met stiff opposition even before the parapolitics scandal heated up. Democrats have refused to put the agreement to a vote, but backers of the Colombia trade agreement are not giving up.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez and other lawmakers on Thursday unveiled the ''Colombia tariff ticker'' at trade.gov website -- a second-by-second tally of $981 million paid out by U.S. exporters over 520 days to Colombia because of the delay in passing the accord.
At least one U.S. congressional opponent of the Colombia trade agreement seized on the political scandal roiling Colombia.
''This latest arrest of someone so close to the Uribe administration should give pause to anyone advocating passage of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement,'' said Rep. Phil Hare, an Illinois Democrat and a member of the House Trade Working Group, whose members are skeptical of free trade.
Shifter said that despite the ''very, very close relationship'' between the two cousins, there is little to indicate that the president will be implicated in the scandal.
''I don't think you should assume [President] Uribe is next,'' Shifter said.
URIBE FIRES BACK
President Uribe told Caracol radio Wednesday morning that an imprisoned former paramilitary leader was trying to implicate him in the planning of the 1997 peasant massacre.
The president flatly denied the allegation, saying it was without merit and one more of ''hundreds'' that have been aimed at him in recent years.
''Many times throughout my political career there have been hundreds of investigations, and I always confront them publicly because there is nothing to hide,'' Uribe told The Herald. ``My political career has been able to walk into a fire without getting burned, thanks to the fact that I have been completely transparent.''
Gustavo Posada, political coordinator of Mario Uribe's Colombia Democrática party, maintained that the Supreme Court and prosecutors are politically motivated.
''Mario Uribe's arrest is a signal that they are going to try to go after Alvaro Uribe,'' Posada said.
Mario and Alvaro Uribe were boyhood pals and as lawyers shared an office in MedellÃn. Both had held provincial and local posts when they decided to go into national politics. Each ran in 1986 as a candidate of a faction of the Liberal Party known as Sector Democrático that they co-founded. Mario won a seat in the House while Alvaro became a senator.
When Alvaro Uribe left the senate to run for governor of Antioquia, Mario Uribe took his seat in the upper house. And when Alvaro Uribe decided to run for president in 2002, Mario Uribe and his political movement were key elements in forming the coalition that brought him to power.
With his cousin in the presidential palace, Mario Uribe was a proponent within Congress of the original law regulating the 2003 demobilization of 30,000 paramilitary fighters that would have granted the leaders near-amnesty for their crimes, some of the most atrocious in Colombia's four-decade-old war. The Constitutional Court later imposed harsher sentences of up to eight years for the top leaders.
Mario Uribe also led the push in Congress for the constitutional reform that allowed President Uribe to seek a second term, which he won in 2006.
Posada of Colombia Democrática told The Herald it was well known that if someone wanted the president's ear, they talked to Mario. ''That's no secret,'' he said.
CONGRESS HAMSTRUNG
The ballooning parapolitics investigation has nearly crippled Congress. Lawmakers who have resigned or have been arrested are replaced with members of their political parties. But many of the replacement legislators are under investigation as well, including the man who took Mario Uribe's Senate seat, Ricardo Elcure, who is now under arrest.
The government and lawmakers are now considering a reform bill that would punish parties whose members are convicted of conspiracy with outlawed armed groups -- be they paramilitaries or leftist rebels -- by stripping the party of its congressional seat.
Some members of the leftist Polo Democrático party have suggested scrapping the Congress altogether and calling new elections immediately.
By Medellin Traveler on Apr 25, 2008, 19:11 in Friendly Talkzone.
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Medellin Traveler says on Apr 25, 2008, 19:13: Notes: U.S. Department of Commerce estimate based on World Trade Atlas data and Colombia tariff schedule. Estimate exceeds $1 billion excluding farm commodity price bands. Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com |
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Medellin Traveler says on Apr 26, 2008, 05:25: La ex representante admitió publicamente que funcionarios del Gobierno le ofrecieron cargos (que ella asegura nunca le dieron) por su voto, que fue decisivo para aprobar la reforma constitucional. Medellin Es Una Chimba! - www.medellintraveler.com |
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Mr. Hollywood says on Apr 26, 2008, 14:07: MT, can you do a favor and post the source when you post an article? You often post interesting stories but without a citation, so it's hard to tell if it's the WSJ or just some yokel.
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Gator says on Apr 29, 2008, 07:56: Me too, Mr. Hollywood. "Brevior Sltare Cum Deformibus Mulieribus Est Vita!" . |
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billyb says on Apr 29, 2008, 08:42: His source seems to be (the always reliable, jajaj) Platano on Cblog.
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romy says on Apr 30, 2008, 12:01: Uribe says he will resign if it's found he intervened in his cousin's case with justice
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