Crimes of the Uribe regime

[RedRalph]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10131095.stm

Several weeks ago ago it was assumed that if Colombian President Alvaro Uribe did not run for a third term, his anointed successor and former Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, would easily be elected to succeed him.

Not now. The presidential election on 30 May is set to be a photo finish.

"It was only 70 days ago that Colombia thought that Uribe was going to be the next president," said Rafael Pardo, the Liberal Party candidate.

"Now the country faces a dilemma: a continuation of Uribe's politics or a fresh start."

All the polls indicate that the contest will go to a second round on 20 June, with most suggesting that Antanas Mockus of the Green Party will face Mr Santos in the second ballot.

This is hard to understand when one thinks that President Uribe still has approval ratings of 60% after almost eight years in power. His popularity can largely be attributed to his hard-line, US-backed security policies.

He has had great success. Marxist rebels, engaged in conflict with the Colombian state for more than four decades, have been driven deep into their mountain and jungle stronghold, their numbers halved.

Drug production is down and the brutal right-wing paramilitary militias have demobilised.

Mr Uribe pushed for a referendum on whether the constitution should again be change to allow him to stand for a third term. But on 26 February, the Constitutional Court banned any further re-election and Mr Santos launched his bid for the presidency.

President Uribe has been unable to transfer his popularity to Mr Santos, 58, or the unified political base with which he has governed.

The main pro-Uribe parties, the Conservatives, Cambio Radical and Mr Santos' Partido de la U, are all fielding their own candidates.

"The Uribe government has been successful, nobody can deny that," said Maria Victoria Llorente of the Bogota-based think-tank Fundacion Ideas para la Paz.

"However it came at a cost, the dark side of the administration: paramilitarism, human rights abuses and illegal wiretapping. Santos is associated with this."

Mr Santos has inherited a series of scandals which are tainting him far worse than they have the president. The one that he had to shoulder as defence minister is that of the "false positives".

Within the army there was a "body bag" culture. Success was measured by the number of enemies killed in combat.

So some units of the army began to round up civilians, initially homeless people, who would turn up dead in remote parts of the countryside in rebel uniform, presented as guerrillas killed in combat.

Last year evidence emerged that unemployed men in the slums of Bogota were being offered work in the eastern province of Norte de Santander only to turn up dead, allegedly killed in combat with the army.

Now the attorney general's office is investigating more than 1300 cases of "false positives" involving more than 2,000 victims.

Another scandal has been that of the secret police, the DAS, which answers to the president.

Some DAS members have admitted that there were illegal intercepts of telephone calls by senior magistrates, opposition politicians and journalists.

Mr Uribe has denied that he ordered the wire-tapping, but investigations are closing in on members of his inner circle in the presidential palace.

Hence the appeal of Antanas Mockus, 58, twice mayor of Bogota, who promises to break with past political corruption.

The idea is intoxicating for Colombians tired of scandals and endemic corruption and this is reflected in his extraordinary and rapid rise in the polls.

Mr Mockus carries with him a pencil everywhere he goes on the campaign trail. It has become the symbol of his campaign.

"The next chapter of Colombia's history will be written with a pencil, not with blood," he insists.

In the University of Antioquia, a hot bed of left-wing thinking, Mr Mockus is greeted like a hero. The young make up a huge part of his following and if he wins it will be thanks to their enthusiasm. The students all carry pencils and wear green shirts.

In Bogota, a Santos campaign rally had a very different feel to it. It was held in the central landmark Tequendama hotel.

Here the crowd wore suits, there were flashing lights and multimedia presentations, all presided over by models who stood around the stage and distributed campaign T-shirts to the faithful.

Diego Ospina, who runs a small restaurant nearby, voiced his backing.

"Look everyone wants an honest government, but Colombia is at war and we need a war president, a man who can get things done. That man is Santos," he said.

Mr Santos comes from unrivalled political stock. His great-uncle was president, his grandfather one of the most prominent political commentators in the country.

He has a long and exceptional record in public office. His time as defence minister saw the rescue of 15 hostages from guerrilla hands, among them the former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt.

The security situation is always at the back of any Colombian's mind. They do not want to return to the days of a decade earlier when the guerrillas were camped in the outskirts of the cities and kidnappings ran at eight a day.

Liberal Party candidate Rafael Pardo has accused the current government and Mr Santos of wanting to make the election about fear.

"They want to scare voters into believing that more of the same military approach is needed," he argues.

Given the closeness of the opinion polls, it seems Colombians favour both change and continuity. Sunday will show which they are ready to plump for.

did any of ye know about this? Unbelievable

 

[Agarwaen]

And this is not even talking about his connections with drug traffic and the paramilitaries.

 

[Masada]

The opposition leader is a fine fellow, weird but kinda cool at the same time. From wiki for instance:

Famous initiatives included hiring 420 mimes to make fun of traffic violators, because he believed Colombians were more afraid of being ridiculed than fined. He also put in place one "Women's Night", on which the city's men were asked to stay home for an evening to look after the house and the children. The city sponsored free open-air concerts, bars offered women-only specials, Ciclovia and the city's women police were in charge of keeping the peace. His initiatives to reduce violence by engaging citizens in civil resistance against violence were as original as successful. He successfully combined showmanship, fiscal discipline and heavy reliance on punitive measures.

 

[Arwon]

He's not the opposition leader, he's a presidential candidate from a new party and former mayor of Bogota.

On the topic: Uribe's a complex figure, and Colombia's a strange country. It's been both scrupulously democratic and incredibly racked by political violence for most of the last century. The social conflict there is deep and enduring - just because it's not made obvious by ethnic, religious or linguistic divisions doesn't mean it isn't there.

The Colombian state is extremely weak and difficult to control - rogue army units and cops are barely distinguishable from drug traffickers and paramilitaries. No president has really been able to exercise effective control - the existence of murders by these forces isn't actually necessarily the fault of any given president.

One of the most telling statistics I've ever read was that Colombia has experienced a 75% drop in the murder of trade unionists under Uribe, and more roads are safe for civilians than for several decades. That's the sort of standards by which success must be judged there.

Of course there's a lot of sleaze and corruption in his government, but you can't lay every death at his feet - they've been going on for decades. What you can blame him for is his authoritarian tendencies and the prioritising fighting enemies over things like rule of law, anti-corruption measures, reform of the security services, etc. All that just perpetuates the social conflict.

This is why Mockus is such a source of hope - if he can stay alive, get into power, and assert authority over the machine of state.

 

[RedRalph]

He's not the opposition leader, he's a presidential candidate from a new party and former mayor of Bogota.

On the topic: Uribe's a complex figure, and Colombia's a strange country. It's been both scrupulously democratic and incredibly racked by political violence for most of the last century. The social conflict there is deep and enduring - just because it's not made obvious by ethnic, religious or linguistic divisions doesn't mean it isn't there.

The Colombian state is extremely weak and difficult to control - rogue army units and cops are barely distinguishable from drug traffickers and paramilitaries. No president has really been able to exercise effective control - the existence of murders by these forces isn't actually necessarily the fault of any given president.

One of the most telling statistics I've ever read was that Colombia has experienced a 75% drop in the murder of trade unionists under Uribe, and more roads are safe for civilians than for several decades. That's the sort of standards by which success must be judged there.

Of course there's a lot of sleaze and corruption in his government, but you can't lay every death at his feet - they've been going on for decades. What you can blame him for is his authoritarian tendencies and the prioritising fighting enemies over things like rule of law, anti-corruption measures, reform of the security services, etc. All that just perpetuates the social conflict.

This is why Mockus is such a source of hope - if he can stay alive, get into power, and assert authority over the machine of state.

Doesw Hugo Chavez get this sort of excuse when his government does anything wrong (not that it has ever done anythign even approaching as wrong as the part I highlighted)?

 

[MobBoss]

Doesw Hugo Chavez get this sort of excuse when his government does anything wrong (not that it has ever done anythign even approaching as wrong as the part I highlighted)?

From you he does. Even your comment here excuses him pre-emptively.

Chavez unashamedly supports FARC. How many people have FARC killed?

And you dont see that as 'anything even approaching' the allegations you read in that story?

 

[Elta]

And this is not even talking about his connections with drug traffic and the paramilitaries.

Oh lord, people say this about every Latin American politician and everyone just automatically says "Typical". You don't even need any sort of evidence at all.


This is not specifically directed at you, it's just that it happens all the time and no one shows a link to a report or anything of the kind.

 

[ColdClimate]

Oh lord, people say this about every Latin American politician and everyone just automatically says "Typical". You don't even need any sort of evidence at all.


This is not specifically directed at you, it's just that it happens all the time and no one shows a link to a report or anything of the kind.

Says the guy with the 'city of god' pic as his avatar

Well, it is a pretty unfair smear on Latin American politics in general, but I thought it was kind of par for the course in Columbia. Speaking from an amittedly uninformed viewpoint...

 

[Elta]

*Says the guy with the 'city of god' pic as his avatar

Well, it is a pretty unfair smear on Latin American politics in general, but I thought it was kind of par for the course in Columbia. Speaking from an amittedly uninformed viewpoint...

* You got me there

I don't know very much about this guy either, I do know that the current **government has very high approval ratings and just as Rightwingers like to exaggerate claims about Chavez, I have no illusions about the fact that Leftwingers will do the same to the government in Colombia.

To be perfectly honest, when it comes to Latin America I am just glad that people are being elected in free and fair elections for the most part.

Ecuador and Colombia's Right wing Governments and Bolivia and Venezuela's left wing governments are all to extreme for me personally, but at least they are being legitimately ruled. Which is a lot more than we could say in the past.



**By Government I mean the current ruling coalition, not federalism or whatever.

 

[Agarwaen]

Elta, there were serious accusations against Uribe in the past, pointing links with right wing paramilitary groups (all guerrilla and paramilitaries in Colombia seems to profit from drug traffic). However it was never proved or ruled in courts.

 

[Arwon]

Doesw Hugo Chavez get this sort of excuse when his government does anything wrong (not that it has ever done anythign even approaching as wrong as the part I highlighted)?

Less so in the last couple of years with the increasing eccentricity and autocratic behaviour, but in the past, yes. Complex figure, gonna leave a very mixed legacy.

But he's gone a long way in politicising and personalising state power, which is not really sustainable and has probably left the Venezuelan state and its institutions in a worse position than they were, even if there's been massive poverty reduction and education programs and the like. There's a good chance a lot of the good work done by social programs instituted under Chávez is going to be undone (or has been) by treating the state coffers as a personal slush fund and by his overall chilling effect on civil society. It's no good having all these lovely innovations if they just end up discredited due to corruption and unaffordability.

Venezuela's a bit different though. Much less democratic history, a stronger state, no history of constant low-level political violence (there's an argument that Colombia has been in civil war for decades), the opposition is frequently rabid, disorganised, shrill and as undemocratic in character as Chávez. Etc.

 

[The Imp]

... how this a Crime of the Uribe Regime, that the Military for some reason measured success in the amount of rebels killed? It is bad policy on part of the military and criminal for the officers ordering the abductions and killings to pad the numbers, of course along with the soldiers doing the actual "work".

 

[Takhisis]

Oh, please, have you ever thought it was any other way? The same kind of crap has been done in the whole of South America, always bankrolled by the US.
And, yes, Chávez supports FARC. How else would the shipments of coke get into buyers' hands?

 

[Masada]

He's not the opposition leader, he's a presidential candidate from a new party and former mayor of Bogota.

Should have read candidate.

 

[Elta]

Elta, there were serious accusations against Uribe in the past, pointing links with right wing paramilitary groups (all guerrilla and paramilitaries in Colombia seems to profit from drug traffic). However it was never proved or ruled in courts.

Fair enough.

 

[sophie]

Very interesting article. I'd say SA is one of the regions I'm least knowledgeable about.

 

[Takhisis]

It's a pity that the same could be said of most Americans, especially the ones in charge.

I live in it, y'know.