Ex-congress president to be tried for parapolitics (Colombia)

[Judi Lynn]

Ex-congress president to be tried for parapolitics
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:06
Hannah Aronowitz

Former Colombian Congress President Miguel Pinedo Vidal has been called to trial for his alleged links with paramilitaries, newspaper El Espectador reported Wednesday.

The former senator of the Radical Change party was delivered to the Attorney General's Office Wednesday night.

Pinedo Vidal is accused of having close ties with the former commander of the AUC's Tayrona Bloc, Hernan Giraldo Serna alias "El Viejo." Apparently, the official held several meetings with El Viejo in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Santa Marta, in the Magdalena department, before the parliamentary elections of 1998 and 2002.

"I will not flee the court and I am determined that I will show my innocence," Pinedo Vidal said in 2008 when he was first accused of parapolitics.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/15103-ex-congress-president-to-be-tried-for-parapolitics.html

http://static2.elespectador.com.nyud.net:8090/files/images/a5a23a52b809be256201924a8b23eca8.jpg

[rabs]

1. Guess where "El Viejo" is now ...

yep, you got it. Passing the time away in a U.S. prison after he was extradited by the uribista thuggish government.

Have to wonder whether Colombian fiscales were given access to him by the DOJ and grilled him about his ties to Pinedo Vidal ?

[Judi Lynn]

2. I just went to look for a photo, then when I saw it, remembered I'd seen already!

He really looks like a true dipstick. "El Viejo!

http://www.minuto30.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/hernan-giraldo.jpg http://static2.elespectador.com.nyud.net:8090/files/images/c4e6e931c0e39939789df15724a7b924.jpg

http://sonandolarevolucion.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/05/uribe-toma-cafe-con-hernan-giraldo-serna-narcotraficante-y-financiador-politico.jpg

Ta Daaaaaaa! He's drinking a
cup of delicious coffee with Uribito.
This guy looks like one super crook, doesn't he?

(I found the small photo at this site. I thought maybe it might be useful to check the last story on the page. It seems interesting:
http://sonandolarevolucion.wordpress.com/category/manipulacion-informativa/ )

Looks as if Uribe certainly did want him stashed away safely in the U.S., and it looks as if he's been flapping around long enough to know a whole lot to discuss with any Colombian investigators.

I can't believe Uribe had any idea these people would EVER go to the U.S. to talk to these guys, do you? They probably figured they had beat the system altogether. It's so creepy.

Seems once the politicos like Pinedo Vidal are "outed" concerning their paramilitary links, their careers are somewhat in the dumper, wouldn't you think? He's a big fish in their bowl. Not as big as Uribe, however.

[rabs]

3. Not only that but El Viejo

was accused of sexualy abusing more than 50 young girls while he was AUC honcho in his zone.

He is said to have fathered 26 children during that time. The girls were from poor campesino families who could do nothing about it. He even had a woman who scouted the girls out for him.

El Viejo was one of the AUC leaders who "demobilized" in 2005, only to have uribe betray him and extradite him, as your photos show.

OT -- have been having fun with a silly goose this evening. :rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

4. So sorry to hear he went through these vulnerable girls. I heard about that problem

as an ancient problem going back even centuries in Colombia, with the helpless tenant farmers having absolutely no defense against the landowners who abused their young daughters regularly. (Reminds me of people like that dirty old ####, racist right-winger lunatic southerner, Senator Strom Thurmond, who fathered a child via his maid.)

Sometimes it seems geese do get fixated, doesn't it? http://blindgossip.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/silly-goose.jpg