Colombia voters elect political novices with possible links to death squads

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Colombia voters elect political novices with possible links to death squads
By Juan Forero
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A new political party accused of having links to right-wing death squads gained important political ground in Colombia's congressional elections Sunday, raising concerns that ties between corrupt politicians and armed gangs remain strong, despite vigorous criminal investigations.

Since 2006, prosecutors have zeroed in on more than 80 lawmakers in Congress, charging half and placing the others under investigation for collaborating with death squad militias that killed thousands in this country's shadowy war. Most were close allies of President Álvaro Uribe, Washington's closest partner in the region and caretaker of billions in military and anti-drug aid.

Many of those implicated in crimes resigned from Congress, and election observers had hoped that voters would cast ballots against would-be successors with suspected criminal links. That would have helped purify a Congress badly tarnished by its collaboration with groups that trafficked cocaine, killed villagers and toppled small-town governments.

But Sunday, voters instead elected scores of political novices who are either under investigation or are relatives or associates of lawmakers implicated in a range of crimes. Political analysts say a third of the incoming lawmakers have questionable connections, as many as when prosecutors began leveling charges against members of Congress more than three years ago.





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031604120.html?wprss=rss_world

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http://www.phillyimc.org.nyud.net:8090/files/imagecache/story/files/BCcover.jpg http://www.cambio.com.co.nyud.net:8090/paiscambio/719/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-3504432-2.jpg

[h9socialist]

1. Colombia is as Fascist as Chile used to be.

. . . and yet the US continues to send money and guns, while talking shit about Hugo and Fidel! Inexcusable!

[bvar22]

2. Whats the word on Election Transparency in Colombia?

Since they are a "puppet state" of the US, and one of the few South American countries that we haven't been thrown out of, I wouldn't expect there to be any.

[rabs]

3. It's a huge mess

The word on the elected relatives, friends, associates etc. of the paramilitaries is that they were financed by millions of dollars from the Uribe government's Agro scandal a few months back and also by paramilitary drug money.

An OAS observation mission on voting day (Sunday) reported that people in some areas were openly being paid the equivalent of 20 dollars at the voting tables. OAS mission chief Enrique Correa said vote buying was observed in the regions of Bolívar, Magdalena, Atlántico, Norte de Santander, Nariño y Cundinamarca.

In the town of Soledad (Atlántico region) voters were offered scholarships for their children in exchange for their vote. In Palermo (Magdalena) people were seen telling voters where to go to get their money.

The winner of the key Conservative Party election is still unknown. Uribe's favorite to replace him in the presidency, He said "dark forces" were behind the accusations and were trying to oust him before the presidential elections on May 30.

Andres Felipe Arias, was about 400 votes BEHIND Noemi Sanin in that elections before counting was halted Saturday dawn with over a million votes counted.

The Conservative Party vote will be crucial in the presidential election and whether the "uribismo" movement continues in the presidency. A manual recount was begun on Monday and the winner may be announced in the next two or three days.

Yesterday Uribe demanded an investigation into whether the national "Registrador," the official in charge of the vote count) had been drunk on Sunday night because of all the counting confusion.

The Registrador went on TV yesterday and denied it, saying he is a teetotaler. He said the chaos had been caused by the company contracted by the Uribe government, which delayed the national count and blacked out the website showing the results. That company in turn blamed subcontracted firms that said their systems had been hacked.

The Registrador said "dark forces" were behind Uribe's accusations and were trying to oust him before the presidential elections on May 30.

So to answer your question on transparency, I am waiting for Hillary or Obama to congratulate Uribe on "transparent" elections.

(edit to add OAS mission chief's name)

[Judi Lynn]

4. Oh, jeez. Thanks for your more complete account of the grim circus. They play a deadly game.

If ONLY there were some agency of some kind which would be capable of and willing to examine what the hell actually happened.

That's the immediate advantage Uribe has in being completely tied to the narcotrafficking death squads.

Sure, it's just a matter of time before we hear loud commendations for their great election success.

I wonder how many people disappeared in the process? Last Presidential election, didn't around 35 candidates nationwide get murdered? I think that's the number I saw.

[bvar22]

5. Thought so.

Colombia, one of the last toeholds for American Predatory Capitalism and Right Wing Puppet dictators left on the whole continent.

Obama's SUPPORT FOR this current regime won't help us.
The REAL Populist Reforms sweeping across South/Central America give me "HOPE" for the World.
The US should be helping THOSE countries with their open democracies, and NOT supporting the dying Right Wing Oligarchs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Sounds very transparent to me.

They weren't trying to hide the theft at all.

[rabs]

8. The transparency is because the voting abuses

are so obvious that they cannot be ignored or swept under.

FYI, "fuertes choques" (strong clashes) erupted this afternoon where the votes for the Conservative Party presidential candidates were being manually recounted. Riot police and demonstrators demanding to observe the vote counting went at each other.

The count has been suspended until 9 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) because of the disorder and because of "fallas" (faults) in the electronic tabulation system, which keeps crashing.

At another location in Bogota, riot police fought students who, as El Tiempo delicately puts it, "ciertos resultados de las elecciones del pasado domingo les causaron inconformismo" or, "certain results of last Sunday's elections caused nonconformism."

The difference between the two Conservative Parties candidates was 404 votes out of about 1.4 million that had been counted before the tally was suspended on Sunday night. One of the candidates is a strong supporter of Uribe, the other (a woman) is not.

Stay tuned, no telling what will happen.

[bvar22]

6. Recommended ...back UP to +5

Some here must support Right Wing Puppet Dictators and their Death Squads.