Colombia detains congressman who was president's peace commissioner for alleged drug ties

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Colombia detains congressman who was president's peace commissioner for alleged drug ties
By Associated Press
5:47 p.m. EDT, April 29, 2010

BOGOTA (AP) — Colombian authorities have detained a lawmaker with ties to President Alvaro Uribe on allegations of receiving drug money.

The Attorney General's Office says Congressman Luis Carlos Restrepo, Uribe's former peace commissioner, was arrested Thursday for alleged illegal enrichment.

Restrepo told reporters he can prove his innocence. If anything, Restrepo says, he is guilty of "legal impoverishment."

The investigation stems from allegations by Hernando Gomez Bustamante, an accused drug trafficker jailed in the U.S., that Restrepo received drug money.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-ap-lt-colombia-congressman-detained,0,4913341.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. Valle and Antioquia congressmen arrested for 'parapolitics'

Valle and Antioquia congressmen arrested for 'parapolitics'
Thursday, 29 April 2010 12:15 Brett Borkan

Colombian authorities arrest congressmen Luis Carlos Restrepo, Valle del Cauca representative, and Valencia Duque, Antioquia representative, on Thursday for alleged links to paramilitary groups, reports El Espectador.

Following orders from Colombia's Supreme Court, agents from the Technical Investigation Team (CTI) arrested Restrepo, a congressman since 2006 (not to be confused with Luis Carlos Restrepo, former peace commissioner) after testimony from extradited drug trafficker Hernando Gomez Bustamante, alias "Rasguno."

Bustamante, who was arrested in 2004 and extradited to the United States on July 19, 2007 for money laundering and drug trafficking, is the former leader of the Norte del Valle Cartel, implicated Partido de la U Congressman Restrepo for receiving campaign financing from paramilitaries.

Bustamante claimed to have received frequent visits from Restrepo, and that he supported the politician financially in his campaign for mayor in the city of Cartago between 2001 and 2003.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/9435-valle-del-cauca-congressman-arrested-for-parapolitics.html

[Wilms]

2. Ooops.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HyyDHyAwI6k/SvHsMh3ajLI/AAAAAAAAG4I/IpTqxmURPjg/s400/colombia+pres+alvaro+uribe.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

3. No doubt the little prince Uribe deeply regrets having given this maurading narcotrafficker

the chance to lighten his legal prospects by taking advantage of Uribe's "demobilization" offer he extended to the powerful, torturing and murdering monsters in Colombia. His being extradited to the U.S. on drug charges keeps the Colombian prosecutors from having to deal with the vicious murders he has committed upon the people of Colombia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/94/Gomez-Bustamante.jpg/100px-Gomez-Bustamante.jpg http://www.elpais.com.co.nyud.net:8090/paisonline/fotos_notas/rasgu2.jpg http://www.pablometal.net.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/bunuelo.jpg http://www.iconoeditorial.com.nyud.net:8090/images/libros/14/caratula.jpg

Luis Hernando Gómez Bustamante alias ‘Rasguño’, the narcotrafficker who has named Uribe's Restrepo as a narco-bought politician.

http://static2.elespectador.com.nyud.net:8090/files/images/mar2009/bab42581df0d1af8e073e87381031920.jpg http://bostonist.com.nyud.net:8090/attachments/boston_caroline/011608-igor-young-frankenstein.jpg

Luis Carlos Restrepo, left, sucking up to Álvaro Uribe, and Igor, "Young Frankenstein."

[Judi Lynn]

4. Colombia: FARC frees Moncayo and Calvo

Colombia: FARC frees Moncayo and Calvo

Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 10:43. Two Colombian soldiers, Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo and Pvt. Josué Daniel Calvo, returned to their hometowns on April 15 following their release by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and more than two weeks of rest and medical tests in Bogotá. Calvo, who was freed by the FARC on March 28 after 11 months in captivity, was greeted by family, friends and the departmental governor in Popayán, capital the southwestern department of Cauca, while Moncayo, who was released on March 30, arrived at Sandoná in the southwestern department of Nariño accompanied by his parents and other family members.

Along with José Libio Martínez Estrada, who remains in captivity, Moncayo is the soldier who has spent the most time as prisoner of the FARC; he and Martínez were captured in a rebel attack on an army base on Dec. 21, 1997. Moncayo is especially well-known because his father, the schoolteacher Gustavo Moncayo, carried out a "walk for peace" for several years to call for the government and the FARC to negotiate his son's release .

Shortly after being freed, Sgt. Moncayo thanked his father, the "indefatigable" Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, Colombians for Peace, the Catholic Church and the International Red Cross for their work in arranging his release. "I want to thank the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa," he added, "because he called for the guerrillas to make a gesture of peace with my handover. Also I want to thank the efforts of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and of Brasil, Lula da Silva." (EFE. April 15 via terra.com, Spain; Venezuelanalysis.com, April 1 via Upside Down World)

http://ww4report.com/node/8607