Leading Colombian party chief arrested

[Judi Lynn]

Jul 25, 2:20 PM EDT

Leading Colombian party chief arrested

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police have arrested the head of one of Colombia's main governing parties for alleged ties with far-right paramilitaries.

Local television is showing Friday's arrest of Sen. Carlos Garcia on criminal conspiracy charges.

Garcia's National Unity party holds the most seats in Colombia's Senate and it has been promoting efforts to hold a referendum that would let conservative President Alvaro Uribe run for a third consecutive term.

One-tenth of Colombia's Congress has been jailed since early last year on charges of benefitting from far-right death squads that killed thousands and stole land from tens of thousands of others in consolidating control of large swaths of the country.

Most are allies of President Uribe.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COLOMBIA_SCANDAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-07-25-14-20-52

[Judi Lynn]

1. He was mentioned in April by the Washington Post:

Cousin of Colombian President Arrested in Death Squad Probe
Mario Uribe Seized After Failed Bid for Political Asylum at Costa Rican Embassy



A man places photographs of people murdered or missing, allegedly because of paramilitary groups, on the fence of the Costa Rican Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. (By William Fernando Martinez -- Associated Press)

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; Page A12

BOGOTA, Colombia, April 22 -- Authorities on Tuesday arrested former senator Mario Uribe, a cousin and close ally of President Álvaro Uribe, for alleged ties to death squads in a widening inquiry that has implicated nearly a quarter of Colombia's Congress.

The arrest of the former senator, who built a formidable political movement that helped his cousin win the presidency in 2002, comes during an institutional crisis that has tarnished a country closely allied with the United States.

~snip~
Still, the simmering scandal has indirectly hurt Colombia's president, the Bush administration's closest ally in Latin America and the beneficiary of billions of dollars in American military aid. Recently jailed allies include Carlos García, president of the pro-Uribe U Party, and Sen. Rubén Quintero, who was Uribe's private secretary when he was governor of Antioquia state in the late 1990s.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042201144.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Another Uribe ally arrested for alleged paramilitary ties

Another Uribe ally arrested for alleged paramilitary ties
Posted : Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:08:04 GMT
Author : DPA


Bogota - A Colombian political leader from President Alvaro Uribe's ruling coalition was arrested Friday for alleged illegal contact with right-wing paramilitaries. Senator Carlos Garcia, who leads the National Unity Party, was taken into custody by police in the northern city of Santa Marta on a warrant from the supreme court in Bogota.

"I am completely innocent," he told reporters.

Three former members of the since disbanded United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) said Garcia met with AUC leaders in 2001.

Garcia is the latest politician to be caught up in a scandal tying conservative politicians to the paramilitaries. In 2006, police found information about the links on former AUC commander Rodrigo Tovar Pupo's computer. Since then, 60 legislators - nearly all members of the ruling coalition - have been charged, more than 30 are currently in jail awaiting trial.

Opposition lawmakers have claimed president had ties to the group during his time as governor of Antioquia province.

The paramilitary groups were founded in the 1980s in response to the leftist rebels, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and have been implicated in massacres of civilians that supported the rebels. In 2004, the AUC disarmed.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/221549,another-uribe-ally-arrested-for-alleged-paramilitary-ties.html

Not so fast there. Our own Senate has just noted the paramilitaries ARE NOT DISARMED:

Jul 22Senate appropriators crank out the 2009 aid bill
U.S. Aid, U.S. Congress

~snip~
Andean Counterdrug Programs (basically the same as International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement): The Committee notes that after providing more than $6,000,000,000 in support of Plan Colombia since 2000, and vigorous efforts by the Colombian Government, many areas of Colombia are safer and its economic indicators have improved. However, armed groups, including demobilized paramilitaries who have rearmed and continue to traffic in drugs, threaten the security of many communities.

More:
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=641

[Judi Lynn]

3. Smooth move: "arrested ... on charges of using paramilitary death squads to intimidate voters.

Ally of Colombia's Uribe arrested in "para" scandal
25 Jul 2008 19:25:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, July 25 (Reuters) - The architect of the effort to allow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to run for a third term in 2010 was arrested on Friday on charges of using paramilitary death squads to intimidate voters.

Sen. Carlos Garcia, head of Uribe's main coalition party, was seized in a hotel in the Caribbean resort city of Santa Marta. He was the 31st politician to be jailed in a scandal over links between the paramilitaries and lawmakers.

Thirty other members of Congress, most from Uribe-friendly parties, are under investigation over links to the right-wing militias formed in the 1980s to help cattle-ranchers, cocaine smugglers and other wealthy Colombians combat leftist rebels.

Garcia is president of the Party of National Social Unity, or "Partido de la U", which is the main political force pushing to let Uribe run for a third term to carry on his popular fight against Marxist guerrillas fighting a 44-year-old insurgency.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25424059.htm

http://s3.amazonaws.com.nyud.net:8090/elespectador/files/images/d07fd5de97de8b7da9ef6216b66a54a7.jpg

Headed under the bus, Colombian Senator Carlos Garcia

[Judi Lynn]

4. Head of Colombian governing party arrested for alleged paramilitary ties

Head of Colombian governing party arrested for alleged paramilitary ties
By Frank Bajak
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:23 p.m. July 25, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia – The leader of a major governing party was arrested Friday for alleged ties with far-right paramilitaries, compounding a scandal that has battered Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's congressional coalition.

Sen Carlos Garcia, a physician first elected to the Senate in 1994, was arrested at a hotel in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, the chief prosecutor's office said. The Supreme Court had been investigating him since April.

~snip~
In May, Uribe extradited 14 top paramilitary leaders to stand trial in the United States on drug trafficking charges. Several of them have fingered Colombian politicians – from mayors to governors to national lawmakers – as having gotten help financially or at the ballot box from the paramilitaries.

In exchange, the paramilitaries were allowed to loot public institutions and extort contractors in public works projects.

Garcia is the second high-ranking member of a party closely tied to President Uribe to be arrested in the so-called parapolitico scandal.

In April, authorities arrested former Sen. Mario Uribe, a second cousin and confidante of the president. He is a founder of the Colombia Democratica party.

The arrest of yet another congressman in the scandal “lamentably continues to decimate the credibility” of Uribe-allied parties – even though “many of us have no ties to this illegalilty,” said Sen. Martha Lucia Ramirez, a National Unity party member and former defense minister.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080725-1223-colombia-paramilitaryscandal.html