Key US ally enveloped in death squad scandal

Just two weeks ahead of a high-profile visit by President Bush to Latin America, the United States' key partner in the region is engulfed in an extraordinary scandal that threatens to undermine the credibility of the US alliance. The widening probe linking dozens of political allies of Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, to the country's right-wing death squads and drug traffickers has started to erode support on Capitol Hill for Colombia, the biggest recipient of US aid outside of the Middle East and Afghanistan. The United States has spent $4.7 billion since 2000 fighting drugs and the insurgency in Colombia. Last week saw the ouster of Uribe's foreign minister over her family's ties to paramilitary militias and the arrest of his hand picked former secret police chief for murder. The "para-political" scandal burst open last fall, when a computer seized from paramilitary leader "Jorge 40" revealed the names of dozens of politicians who supposedly collaborated with paramilitaries in intimidating voters, seizing land, and kidnapping or killing labor unionists and political rivals. Other revelations followed, including secret documents signed by officials pledging moral support or kickbacks to the illegal militias. The paramilitaries formed in the 1980s to combat leftist guerrillas who have seized large swaths of Colombian territory for more than 40 years. But the militias, like their leftist rivals, were soon implicated in massacres, kidnapping and drug trafficking to the United States. The paramilitary umbrella group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, is classified as a terrorist organization by Washington, and many of its leaders are wanted for extradition on drug charges. Eight pro-Uribe congressmen have been arrested for collaborating with paramilitaries, and dozens of national and regional politicians, some who have apparently fled the country, are under investigation. Pro-Uribe legislators, as well as the opposition, have called for special elections to "cleanse" Congress, to erase suspicions that many may have won because of support from paramilitaries. A decorated colonel has been relieved of his post, and other former military officials are also under investigation. On Feb. 19, Uribe's foreign minister, María Consuelo Araújo, resigned after the Supreme Court arrested her brother, a Uribe-allied senator, for involvement in the kidnapping of a political rival. Her father, a former governor, another brother and a cousin are also under investigation. The former foreign minister's cousin, Hernando Molina Araújo, governor of the northeastern department of Cesar–the Araújo family's home province–was brought in for questioning in connection with "crimes against life and national security," said Attorney-General Mario Iguarán. Molina Araújo reportedly handled large amounts of money for members of the paramilitary militias who apparently ensured that he was the only candidate in the elections by threatening and forcing his opponents to pull out of the race, in what was billed at the time as a "political agreement." On Feb. 22, the worst blow came. Jorge Noguera, who served as Uribe's campaign manager and later as head of Colombia's secret police, was arrested by the attorney general. Noguera is accused of giving a hit list of trade unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who then killed them. Another former secret police official is serving an 18-year sentence for purging police records of paramilitaries and drug traffickers. The investigation has been aided by the testimony of a former Noguera aide, Rafael Garcia, who is serving a prison sentence for drug offenses. Garcia's lawyer says Noguera is being investigated in the killing of university professor Alfredo Correa de Andreis, one of the names on the hit list. Correa was investigating the forced displacement of peasants from rich lands along the Caribbean coast that were then taken by the paramilitaries. Already, the scandal has had a ripple effect on Capitol Hill, where questions are being raised about requests for an additional $4 billion in antinarcotics aid and a free trade pact is up for approval. "American taxpayers deserve assurances that the Colombian government has severed links to these terrorist groups," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees US foreign assistance programs. "[This] scandal only reinforces the need to reassess who we are dealing with, whether adequate corrective steps are being taken, and what we are getting for our money." Maria McFarland, a Colombia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Bush has "stood by Uribe unconditionally," despite long standing allegations of his armed forces collaborating with death squads. With proof now emerging, McFarland said, US policy appears hypocritical. "They are prepared to criticize very harshly leaders they disagree with, but when their allies do something, they turn a blind eye," she said. If the United States continues "to support so strongly a government mired in corruption and links to terrorists and drug lords," it will fuel resentment from other Latin American countries that have been ignored, she said. Around 60 regional and federal lawmakers, nearly all of whom belong to pro-Uribe parties, have come under scrutiny from the Supreme Court. They are all being investigated for their involvement with the paramilitaries. According to a study by a local peace and development group, the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, and by academics at the public National University of Colombia, suspicion could hang over 33 of the 102 members of the Senate. (The coalition backing the president holds a 70 percent majority in the national Congress.) A Supreme Court resolution made public on Feb. 16 confirmed that the paramilitaries not only had influence over Congress, but that legislators and drug traffickers actually created their own paramilitary groups. But the paramilitary groups actually work closely with the security forces, as demonstrated by the numerous sentences against Colombia handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for crimes against humanity perpetrated by paramilitaries. United Nations officials say the paramilitary militias are responsible for 80 percent of the atrocities committed in the armed conflict, and the Comptroller-General's Office estimates that the groups have seized over 11 million acres of the best land in the country. Some 3.8 million small farmers have been displaced from their land, according to the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement, a local human rights group.