Uribe and his 'political party' have never won a presidential election in Colombia without narco sup

[Judi Lynn]

Uribe and his ‘political party’ have never won a presidential election in Colombia without narco support
by Adriaan Alsema March 11, 2020

Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe and his party have never won a presidential election without the admitted help of drug traffickers.

Uribe’s Democratic Center party is currently in trouble for allegedly receiving narco support to rig the 2018 elections, but this seemed only a matter of time; the former Medellin Cartel associate and his clan have never won a presidential election without the help of narcos.

President Ivan Duque‘s political patron isn’t the only one though. Colombia has had only two presidents who weren’t elected with the support of narcos since 1994 when the Cali Cartel helped former President Ernesto Samper win the election.

Former President Andres Pastrana‘s 1998 campaign was illegally financed by dredging company Dragacol and former President Juan Manuel Santos‘ 2010 campaign was illegally financed by Brazilian engineering firm Odebrecht and their Colombian partner, banking conglomerate Grupo Aval.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/uribistas-have-never-won-a-presidential-election-without-support-from-colombias-narcos/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Perfect article on how intensely right-wing death squads were monitoring Uribe's elections years ago

already posted in this forum several times since it was written to inform readers who hadn't known about it, while of course corporate media was keeping ALL of this buried, under wraps, out of sight, as if it had never happened:

COLOMBIA: "Mark Him on the Ballot – The One Wearing Glasses"
By Constanza Vieira

. . .

What convinced the villagers to vote for Uribe? "Because the region where we live is poor, very poor, it’s so difficult to find work, and when I heard him say ‘I am going to work for the poor, I am going to help them,’ I thought ‘this is a good president’."

When the rightwing president’s first four-year term came to an end in 2006, most of the villagers decided again to vote for him, reasoning that he just needed more time to reduce poverty.

. . .

The odd thing was that in both the 2002 and 2006 elections, despite the fact that the villagers had already decided to vote for Uribe, the far-right paramilitaries, who had committed a number of murders since 1998, when they appeared in the region that was previously dominated by the leftwing guerrillas, pressured the local residents to vote for Uribe anyway.
The paramilitaries did not kill people to pressure the rest to vote for Uribe, as they did in other communities, but merely used "threats," said L.

"If you don't vote for Uribe, you know what the consequences will be," the villagers were told ominously.

And on election day, they breathed down voters’ necks: "This is the candidate you’re going to vote for. You’re going to put your mark by this one. The one wearing glasses," they would say, pointing to Uribe’s photo on the ballot, L. recalled.

"One (of the paramilitaries) was on the precinct board, another one was standing next to the table, and another was a little way off, all of them watching to see if you voted for Uribe," she added, referring to the less than subtle way that the death squads commanded by drug traffickers and allies of the army ensured that L.’s village voted en masse for the current president in both elections.

"We form part of a municipality where there is corruption, from the mayor to town councillors, the police, the army and the justice officials – in a word, everyone. They are just one single corrupt mass. So what are you supposed to do?" said L., who added that the paramilitaries "control everything."

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2008/05/colombia-quotmark-him-on-the-ballot-the-one-wearing-glassesquot/