DAS Scandal Looms over
Colombian Visit
Hat in hand, senior Colombian representatives arrived in Washington
on February 24 to begin a lobbying blitz, yet were reluctant to
acknowledge that their country is currently embroiled in a pervasive
corruption scandal which discredits even the usually teflon-coated
Uribe administration.
Taking part in a 3-day trip to Washington, Jaime Bermúdez, Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and Juan Manuel Santos, Minister of National
Defense, met with representatives of the Obama administration and
the Senate, where they urged key White House players to pass the
long-stalled Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the U.S. and
Colombia. Another priority on their agenda was to secure the steady
flow of Plan Colombia’s counter-narcotics aid, which is up for
reevaluation in 2010.
Mission in Washington
The Colombian delegation met with top-level Obama Cabinet members,
including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, CIA director Leon
Panetta and National Security Adviser James Jones, as well as
important legislative members, such as Sen. John Kerry of the
Foreign Relations Committee and Sen. Patrick Leahy of the
Appropriations Committee. Shortly after the high-level meetings,
Santos claimed that the original aid pledged under Plan Colombia
will continue uninterrupted through the current fiscal year. During
his visit, the House approved maintaining the annual $545 million
funding for 2009. Despite the current economic climate and the
ambiguity of future assistance, Santos explained that “US drug aid
to Colombia, [is] a drop in [the] ocean,” underscoring the aid’s
relatively small figure compared to the huge amount of funds spent
on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Although Plan Colombia was a pressing issue for Santos and Bermúdez,
it was the perpetually delayed FTA that represented the main thrust
of the visit. On the heels of her recent Asia trip, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton met with the Colombian representatives to
discuss the FTA’s future. Colombian daily El Tiempo quoted Bermúdez
as saying that “we must recognize the current circumstances and the
political climate in the US, as well as the important subjects such
as the financial crisis, but we must be persistent and achieve the
passing of the FTA.” Bermúdez also claimed that Clinton is in favor
of the FTA, which would provide Colombia with a strong ally in the
fight to gain the agreement’s ratification, at a time when President
Obama has vowed to comb over every dollar that the government
spends.
Caught Red-Handed
This visit comes at a time when Colombia’s human rights record is
coming increasingly under fire. The news magazine Semana, which has
been running bold and brilliant articles on the subject, reported on
February 22 that the Colombian intelligence agency DAS had been
wiretapping opposition politicians, Supreme Court judges,
prosecutors and journalists, and passing on the information gathered
to criminal groups; as Semana put it, intelligence is allegedly
being sold “to the highest bidder.” President Uribe, who has all
along insisted that he is not a crook, has since attempted to calm
the storm raging around the scandal by alleging that members of his
administration were also victims, blaming drug smugglers, and
pledging to take moves to reform, or “purge” DAS, including removing
its authorization to conduct wiretaps. In Washington, Santos went
further, declaring that DAS should be wound up altogether and given
“a Christian burial.”
However, this latest disclosure is part of a long series of corrupt
practices and human rights abuses which have characterized the Uribe
presidency. A similar scandal brought about the resignation of
senior police officials in May 2007, while Colombia’s Supreme Court
has issued charges against 33 members of Congress - many of them
Uribe allies - for alleged collusion with far-right death squads,
and an ex-director of DAS, Jorge Noguera, who is in prison awaiting
trial on charges of supplying the names of potential targets to such
groups.
It is clear that the Uribe administration has been forced onto the
defensive, a course of action it has taken in desperation, in no
small part due to the timing of Semana’s revelations to coincide
with the Colombians’ visit to Washington. These violations which are
chronically committed with impunity in the Andean nation have been
solely responsible for holding up the FTA in Congress since 2007.
The rot which has been exposed once again by revelations of DAS’
transgressions is one for which the blame must lie at Uribe’s door,
and recent events highlight the necessity for members of the U.S.
Congress to continue to resist the advancement of U.S. trade
relations with Colombia for as long as corruption in Bogotá remains
the order of the day and as long as Uribe holds on to office.
Diplomatic Inconsistencies
The FTA has been bogged down in Congress because of correct concerns
surrounding Colombia’s dismal human rights record, most recently the
violent assaults perpetrated against labor leaders. This approach to
free trade is in stark contrast to U.S. bilateral relations with
China. In her recent tour of Asia, Clinton made it very clear that
human rights and trade would be two separate issues: “Successive
administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and
forth on these issues [of human rights], and we have to continue to
press them. But our pressing on those issues [of human rights] can’t
interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change
crisis, and the security crisis.” This is an ominous tone for the
new Secretary of State to take and is reminiscent of her husband’s
pragmatic approaches to NAFTA during his presidency.
Although abhorrent to some, this type of diplomatic realism may be
necessary in U.S. relations with Beijing, since China is the largest
purchaser of U.S. treasury bonds, and at a time where credit is
precipitously evaporating, it has the much-needed liquidity to help
keep the U.S. economy afloat. Furthermore, China is a repressive
authoritarian regime; by virtue of this country’s political
structure, there will inevitably be an ideological gap between
Beijing and Washington concerning the primacy of democracy, the
implementation of the rule of law, and the value of preserving basic
human rights and freedoms. Despite Clinton’s approach, human rights
issues should not disappear from the table altogether.
Colombia, by contrast, is a supposed democratic state. However, the
country’s abysmal human rights record and major democratic lapses
implicate the fragility of its political system. The most recent
extrajudicial wiretappings by DAS in conjunction with the killings
of more labor leaders than in any other Latin American country are
strong indicators that in order for democracy to keep a foot-hold in
the country, it must be actively cultivated and carefully nurtured.
Unlike China, Colombia is reliant on the U.S. for foreign aid, and
therefore may be more open to external influence. The pending FTA
thus presents an opportunity to improve the current situation. It is
utterly inaccurate to describe the country as a “democracy”, when a
more appropriate phrase is necessary to convey the magnitude of its
venality, the grossness of its corruption and the brutality of its
security forces.
An FTA with Colombia will not be merited, however, if the U.S.
continues to put their blind faith in the integrating and
transformational powers of the free market without recognizing its
most fundamental limitation. While trade increases the mutual
economic dependence of countries that engage in it, it does not make
them tried and true democrats. Such people can be more accurately
described as trading partners, who may omit paying tariffs but are
willing to turn a blind eye to gross human rights violations. As a
result, the United States, in unison with Bogotá, must actively seek
to construct a more acceptable framework for human rights that
respects and upholds the rule of law. A free trade agreement alone
will not achieve these ends. In fact, it will invalidate the
legitimacy of its purpose.
This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Guy
Hursthouse, Tomás Ayuso and Lilly Briger
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