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COLOMBIA:
Moving Towards a Paramilitary State?
Analysis by Javier Darío
Restrepo
BOGOTA (IPS) - Visibly indignant, former Colombian president
César Gaviria (1990-1994) denounced this week what he called
an "appalling" article in a draft political reform law
currently under debate in Congress.
He was referring to "article four, which allows paramilitary
chiefs to run for popularly elected posts, to enter into
contracts with the state, and to become public employees.
They are trying to turn what was knocked down by the
Constitutional Court and the Justice and Peace Law into
something that is consecrated by the constitution," said
Gaviria, the head of the opposition Liberal Party.
Although article four ended up being removed from the draft
political reform law, partly due to the public outcry, the
controversy to which it gave rise revived the uneasy
sensation that the construction of a paramilitary state in
Colombia has been moving forward, step by step.
The article in question was not the first time that
Colombia’s far-right paramilitary groups have figured in a
privileged position in initiatives put forward by the
Colombian government. Shortly after he began his first term,
in 2002, rightwing President Álvaro Uribe proposed that
Congress issue a general pardon for paramilitaries and allow
them to have direct parliamentary representation.
In his second term, which began in 2006, just after the
outbreak of the scandal over politicians who benefited at
the polls thanks to pressure on voters by the paramilitaries
– locally dubbed the "parapoliticans" – the president has
promoted measures aimed at securing the release of the
numerous members of Congress in prison on charges of having
ties to the paramilitary groups.
In a report titled "A las puertas del Ubérrimo" (At the
Gates of Ubérrimo – the name of the Uribe family ranch),
prominent human rights defenders Iván Cepeda and Jorge Rojas
pointed to much earlier signs of the president’s tendency to
favour the paramilitaries.
For instance, as governor of the northern province of
Antioquia, Uribe granted a permit to the private security
cooperative Convivir Horizonte, at the request of
paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso in 1996, "after they
had already committed 10 massacres," say the authors of the
report.
That same year, the then governor justified providing
long-range weapons to the Convivir, which were paramilitary
groups set up by large landowners to protect their land and
livestock, as well as their lives, which were threatened by
guerrillas that were harassing rural estates in Antioquia
and neighbouring Córdoba.
While Uribe governed Antioquia, from 1995 to 1997, the
mutual admiration between the governor and the leaders of
these groups was clearly evident. According to Uribe, they
were "a transparent model" and "a support group for the
military forces."
For his part, Cepeda and Rojas wrote, "Mancuso did not
conceal his admiration. ‘Uribe has maintained a firm
stance,’ he said. And Carlos Castaño (another paramilitary
leader) said Uribe ‘is the man closest to our philosophy’."
These close ties were put on open public display on three
occasions, which have taken on special relevance today.
The first was the homage paid to General Rito Alejo del Río,
known as the "pacifier of Urabá," who is now facing charges
for ties to paramilitary groups in that northwestern
Colombian region. At the ceremony in Bogotá, Uribe was the
keynote speaker.
He was also the chief speaker at a ceremony organised by
ranchers in Córdoba in honour of the leader of their
association, Rodrigo García Caicedo, known as part of the
inner circle of the Castaño brothers and as an advocate of
the doctrine of the self-defence groups.
The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the El Meridiano
newspaper in Córdoba provided another clear sign of that
close relationship. The paper’s owners are on the list of
those who finance the paramilitary Self-Defence Forces of
Córdoba, as shown by documents in the hands of the Attorney
General’s Office. Uribe’s presence and participation in the
event were broadly covered and highlighted in the pages of
the newspaper.
An incident that was an embarrassment to Uribe, because of
the then governor’s proximity to the paramilitaries, was the
1998 murder of lawyer Jesús María Valle. A few days before
the prominent lawyer was killed, the governor had publicly
referred to him as an "enemy of the armed forces."
As president of the Antioquia branch of the Permanent
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Valle had
denounced an alliance between the paramilitaries and the
army in the killings of 19 people in the municipality of
Ituango in 1996 and 1997. The link between Uribe’s public
berating of Valle and his murder, pointed to by the El
Colombiano newspaper, prompted a heated exchange of letters
between Uribe and the paper.
At the end of his term as governor and the start of his
campaign for the presidency, Uribe named General del Río,
who is now under arrest, as his security adviser; made Roger
Taboada, who currently faces an arrest warrant, as his
campaign treasurer in Córdoba; and included José María
Maroso, presently accused by the Attorney General’s Office
of financing the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of
Colombia (AUC), as a member of his campaign staff.
Twenty of the friends involved in Uribe’s campaign turned
out to have signed the so-called Ralito pact, a paramilitary
initiative, and today are accused of forming part of an
alliance with the extreme-right groups, many of which were
closely associated with drug trafficking.
The secret Ralito pact was signed in 2001 by paramilitary
chiefs and more than 50 politicians with the stated aim of "refounding
the country."
As Interior Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio defended
controversial article four of the draft political reform
law, this history of alliances and close ties with the
paramilitaries appeared to be an explanation of the latest
attempt at favouring the far-right groups.
The incidents from the past are further underscored by the
revealing numbers provided by the Supreme Court and the
Attorney General’s Office. Of the more than 80 legislators
under arrest or investigation in connection with the "parapolitics"
scandal, 60 – in other words, 75 percent – belong to the
governing coalition. If article four of the draft law had
been approved, they would have been the first to benefit.
Pragmatic political arguments were set forth to justify the
attempt to benefit them, in order to keep their seats from
being left empty.
According to commentator Rodolfo Arango, based on official
data, "a total of 2,324,751 votes" for pro-Uribe candidates
were compromised by the parapolitics scandal.
What would appear to really matter then is to preserve a
decisive number of votes, to maintain the pro-Uribe majority
in Congress. |
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