Colombian gov't infiltrated by 'paras'-witness

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian gov't infiltrated by 'paras'-witness
Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:16pm EDT

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, April 18 (Reuters) - Colombian government ministries and other state institutions are infiltrated by outlawed right-wing militias, a witness told judges in testimony on Friday that could further imperil a U.S. trade deal.

More than 60 members of Congress, most from President Alvaro Uribe's conservative coalition, are being investigated for possible links to drug-running paramilitaries who have terrorized Colombia for years in the name of combating left-wing rebels.

The probe's star witness, former intelligence official Rafael Garcia, now in jail for erasing the criminal histories of paramilitary leaders from a government database, told the Supreme Court the armed forces, government ministries and other institutions were also rife with "paras."

"Congress is not the only institution penetrated by the paramilitaries," he said while testifying against a senator caught in the scandal.

The allegation could increase resistance in Washington to a U.S.-Colombia free trade deal, blocked by House of Representatives Democrats concerned that Uribe is not doing enough to protect labor union members who are often targeted by the paramilitaries.
(snip)

Authorities said earlier this week they were investigating an army colonel and six soldiers for colluding with violent paramilitary drug smugglers. Public corruption is widespread in Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN18328388

[Judi Lynn]

1. Labor killings in Colombia become issue in U.S. trade deal

Labor killings in Colombia become issue in U.S. trade deal
By Simon Romero Published: April 13, 2008



Lucy Gómez and Luis Humberto Ortiz talk about the killing
of her brother, Leonidas. (Scott Dalton for The New York Times)

BOGOTÁ: Lucy Gómez still shudders when speaking of the killing of her brother, Leonidas, a union leader and bank employee who was beaten and stabbed here last month. His death was part of a recent surge in killings of union members in Colombia, with 17 already this year.

"I want those who did this to pay for their crime," said Gómez, 37, a seamstress, clutching a faded photograph of her brother, an employee of Citigroup's Colombian unit, who was 42. "But I feel in danger myself. This is not a country where one can express such a wish without fear of being eliminated like my brother."

Gómez's fear, and the dread felt by union members and their families throughout Colombia, has long been a feature of labor organizing during this country's four-decade internal war. More than 2,500 union members in Colombia have been killed since 1985, and fewer than 100 cases have a conviction, according to the National Labor School, a labor research group in Medellín.

Now these killings are emerging as a pressing issue in Washington as Democrats and Republicans battle over a trade deal with Colombia, the Bush administration's top ally in Latin America. The Colombian government is already struggling to recover from the latest salvo in the fight, a vote by U.S. House Democrats on Thursday to snub President George W. Bush and indefinitely delay voting on the deal.
(snip)

In recent weeks, a new wave of threats has emerged, from groups identifying themselves as a new generation of private armies, against human rights activists and labor organizers, many of whom have opposed the trade deal, raising the specter of still more anti-union violence to come.

The 17 union killings so far this year represent a 70 percent increase from the same period last year.
(snip)

Carlos Burbano was a vice president in the hospital workers' union of the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, in southern Colombia, who disappeared March 9. His body was found four days later in a garbage dump in an area considered paramilitary territory. Burbano, who had received threats before from paramilitaries, had been stabbed multiple times and burned with acid.

Like Burbano, Gómez, a member of the Bank Workers' Union in Bogotá, was an outspoken critic of the paramilitaries. He had traveled throughout Colombia to speak out against the U.S. trade deal, which he expected to raise salaries of senior Citigroup executives while eroding the benefits of employees, said Luis Humberto Ortiz, a fellow union official and Citigroup employee.

Last seen at a meeting with leftist politicians on the night of March 4, Gómez was found dead in his apartment on March 8, with multiple stab wounds and his hands tied behind his back. Missing from his apartment were his laptop computer, USB memory sticks and cash from his pockets, his sister said.

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/13/america/bogota.php?page=1

[Texano78704]

2. Well...

With Uribe's ties to paramilitary groups, it seems obvious that government institutions have been "infiltrated." I have no doubt that drug money buys a lot of influence in the Colombian government at all levels.