Secret Meeting Sparks Inquiry: Latest Chapter in Colombian Scandal

[Judi Lynn]

Secret Meeting Sparks Inquiry
Latest Chapter in Colombian Scandal

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 25, 2008; A14



The "para-politics" scandal has raised questions
about some aides of Colombian leader Álvaro Uribe,
who was at the United Nations yesterday. (By Seth
Wenig -- Associated Press)

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's inspector general's office is investigating a secret meeting at the presidential palace in April between top aides to President Álvaro Uribe and emissaries of a feared paramilitary warlord.

The representatives of the warlord, Diego Fernando Murillo, brought tape recordings that could have been used to undermine a broad criminal investigation that has put key allies of the president in jail, two people familiar with the meeting said in interviews last week. Uribe's associates later said the tapes did not discredit the inquiry.

But the meeting has ignited a political firestorm and become the latest chapter of the "para-politics" scandal tying dozens of lawmakers and other officials to paramilitary groups.

The government has admitted that Uribe's aides were given audiotapes that Murillo and his attorney surreptitiously made in the Supreme Court, whose investigators have aggressively pursued links between officials and paramilitary groups. Uribe has called the court's investigation politically motivated and manipulative.

~snip~
The scandal has raised questions about some of Uribe's associates as his administration embarks on a last-ditch effort to win U.S. congressional approval for a free-trade agreement. Uribe has defended Colombia as a faithful caretaker of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid designed to eradicate drug crops and fight leftist guerrillas.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092403201.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia: striking cane-cutters attacked

Colombia: striking cane-cutters attacked
Submitted by WW4 Report on Wed, 09/24/2008 - 23:26.

On Sept. 15, at least 12,000 Colombian sugar cane cutters went on strike to protest the systematic violation of their labor rights and human rights. The workers cut sugar cane for 16 sugar mills in the Cauca river valley, primarily in the department of Valle del Cauca but also in the neighboring departments of Cauca, to the south, and Risaralda, to the northeast. The same day the strike began, hundreds of agents from the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) of the Colombian National Police, together with army soldiers and private sugar company guards, attacked a group of striking cane cutters from the Incauca and Providencia sugar mills, injuring more than 100 workers, at least five of them seriously.

Gildardo Nieves, from the Incauca mill, was badly wounded in the abdomen with a tear gas bomb which affected his vital organs. Four workers from the Providencia mill required medical treatment for open wounds and contusions to the eyes, face and torso.

The sugar workers called the strike to pressure the Association of Sugar Cane Growers, ASOCANA, to negotiate a list of demands presented to them by the cane cutters union on July 14. ASOCANA has refused to negotiate and instead took out paid ads on local radio and television stations, threatening layoffs in case of a strike and telling the community not to support or participate in the strike.

The sugar workers' union and human rights organizations grouped in the Campaña Prohibido Olvidar (Forgetting Is Prohibited Campaign) are demanding a full investigation into the Sept. 15 violence and an end to such attacks, respect for the labor and human rights of the sugar workers, and elimination of the current contracting system that forces sugar workers to endure 14-hour days and substandard wages. About 90% of the cane cutters in Valle del Cauca department are members of cooperatives which contract with the sugar companies; the government's Ministry of Social Protection claims that because the workers own the cooperatives, they don't have the right to bargain collectively or to strike. The workers want to end the contracting system and return to being hired directly by the sugar companies, as was the situation before 2000. Other demands include paid sick days and no reprisals against the strikers. (Communique from Movimiento de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Cana de Azucar, Secretaria de Derechos Humanos de la Central Unitaria de Trabajadores-CUT; Asociación Nomadesc; Corporación Juridica Utopia; Corporación Sembrar and other organizations belonging to the Campaña Prohibido Olvidar, Sept. 15; El Diario del Otun, Pereira, Sept. 20; El Universal, Cartagena, Sept. 20 from Colprensa; El Pais, Cali, Sept. 20)

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/6068

[Judi Lynn]

2. Colombia arrests brother of interior minister

Colombia arrests brother of interior minister
He's among dozens investigated for making money off drug groups
updated 1 hour, 3 minutes ago


BOGOTA, Colombia - The brother of Colombia's powerful interior minister was arrested Thursday as a scandal over ties to outlawed paramilitary drug gangs spread among Colombia's ruling elite.

Guillermo Leon Valencia is being investigated for possible illegal enrichment and use of privileged information in contacts with the gang of a top paramilitary leader, according to prosecutors and his defense attorney.

Valencia is the brother of Interior and Justice Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio, who is in charge of domestic political affairs and who was heading the president's office on Thursday since President Alvaro Uribe was travelling abroad.

Valencia joins a list including of scores of congressmen, a political party chief and even Uribe's second cousin who have been arrested on charges of benefiting from ties to the paramilitaries in various ways. The groups were organized to protect landowners from leftist guerrillas, but they branched out into drug trafficking, murder and extortion. The U.S. government considers them a terrorist organization.

~snip~
The national magazine Cambio had published transcripts of intercepted telephone calls between Valencia and an alleged associate of Daniel Rendon Henao, alias "Don Mario", who officials say is the leading figure in Colombia's drug-trafficking right-wing paramilitary groups.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26890170/