Video links Colombia militia boss, Uribe

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Chronicle/Associated Press

June 17, 2007, 3:44PM
Video links Colombia militia boss, Uribe

By FRANK BAJAK Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia — In his five years as president, Alvaro Uribe has repeatedly denied accusations that he's been cozy with Colombia's murderous right-wing militias, whose thousands of victims include suspected rebel sympathizers and union activists.
(snip)

The militia chief in the video, which bears an Oct. 31, 2001, time stamp, was identified by three people familiar with him — including human rights activists — as Fremio Sanchez Carreno, better known as "Comandante Esteban," who had just finished spearheading the bloody militia takeover of this steamy oil-refining city on Colombia's main river when Uribe met with him and about a dozen other people.

AP obtained the video from a person who would like to see Uribe toppled and provided the recording on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. This person said the video was recorded by paramilitaries that the Uribe-Sanchez encounter occured in the city council's chambers in Puerto Berrio, a paramilitary stronghold an hour from Barrancabermeja.
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After seeing the video, Daniel Kovalik, an attorney for the United Steelworkers union, wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, questioning Uribe's seriousness about labor rights in Colombia, where more than 800 trade unionists have been killed in the last six years by government count.




Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4897062.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Also available at the following link, if the Chronicle only allows subscribers:

Paramilitary boss in campaign video with Colombian President Uribe, despite denial of links
Sunday, June 17, 2007
By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer
http://www.kcbs.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/National/a/i/Colombia-Paramilitary

[Judi Lynn]

2. Don't make "malevolent insinuations!" Signed, Uribe spokesman, César Mauricio Velásquez

Posted on Fri, Jun. 15, 2007reprint or license print email Digg it del.icio.us COLOMBIA
Possible Uribe-paramilitary link suggested
A campaign video showed Colombia's president with a group that included a paramilitary leader, but it's unclear whether he knew the man's identity.
BY GERARDO REYES
El Nuevo Herald

~snip~
Uribe spokesman César Mauricio Velásquez, shown a still photograph taken from the video, replied by e-mail that ``the president does not comment on or explain each of the millions of photos and hours of video such as the ones you refer to.''

''If you have any concrete accusation against the president for complicity with criminals, I beg you to make it formally. Otherwise, I beg you to abstain from making malevolent insinuations,'' Velásquez added.

From the images and the date that appears on the video, the meeting was held Oct. 31, 2001, during a campaign stop by Uribe in Puerto Berrío, near Barrancabermeja.

The paramilitary man at the meeting was identified by human-rights activists from Barrancabermeja as Frenio Sánchez Carreño, second in command of a unit of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the paramilitaries' umbrella group. The man identified as Sánchez does not speak on the video.

Sánchez was arrested less than two months after the meeting in an operation announced at a news conference by Colombia's version of the FBI, the Administrative Security Directorate. Then-agency Director Germán Jaramillo said Sánchez, also known as Comandante Esteban, was wanted on charges his unit had murdered some 80 people in the previous two years.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/140346.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Denying illegal campaign financing, Colombia president asks for federal investigation

Denying illegal campaign financing, Colombia president asks for federal investigation
© AP
2007-06-20 13:05:15 -

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - President Alvaro Uribe formally asked Colombia's chief federal prosecutor Tuesday to investigate allegations that far-right paramilitaries helped finance his 2002 political campaign.

The request came after the president denied vague accusations made by a fugitive Colombian druglord that Uribe's first presidential campaign was partially financed by illegal right-wing militias.
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Also Tuesday, Colombia's state security agency confirmed that a wanted paramilitary boss shook hands with Uribe during a campaign meeting on Oct. 31, 2001, and that a second paramilitary also attended. Both can be seen with Uribe in a videotape that surfaced last week. The presidency responded by saying Uribe can't possibly know everyone he meets with.
(snip)

Uribe has repeatedly denied being cozy with Colombia's right-wing militias, even with 12 of his allies in Congress jailed since late last year on charges of colluding with the paramilitaries, whose thousands of victims include suspected rebel sympathizers and union activists.
(snip)

Fremio Sanchez is a fugitive again, with a 10 million peso (US$5,000; ¤3,750) reward offered for his capture. He was arrested on multiple murder charges about six weeks after shaking Uribe's hand but was never tried and a judge released him in June 2005 for unexplained reasons.
(snip)

More:
http://www.pr-inside.com/denying-illegal-campaign-financing-colombia-r158683.htm