Colombia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered five more politicians to answer for their alleged ties to far-right death squads in Colombia’s worst political scandal in decades.
The five are to testify on why they signed a letter of understanding with the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia, the illegal militia’s national umbrella group, in 2024.
The four senators and a congressman are accused of conspiracy to commit a crime, said Alfredo Gomez, president of the criminal wing of the Supreme Court.
The politicians are all from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, a longtime paramilitary stronghold.
On Tuesday, Colombia’s chief federal prosecutor ordered 20 prominent politicians to give sworn testimony about their signing of the secret document, called the “Ralito Pact,” after the town where it was inked.
The article does not name the politicians in question.
Convalescing Cuban leader
Fidel Castro is his old talkative self and was fit enough to take a long walk with his writer friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez this week, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Thursday.
“I tell you, it seemed like kilometres,” the Nobel Prize winning Colombian writer said, describing a stroll the two went for on Monday.
“Fidel is a force of nature,” said Garcia Marquez, adding that he found Castro in good humor and interested in talking about global warming and Latin American politics.
“It’s the same old Fidel,” Garcia Marquez said.
[…]
The novelist has remained loyal to his old friend Castro, unlike many other Latin American intellectuals who have condemned him for human rights abuses in Cuba.
Which, I have to say, isn’t to Garcia Marquez’s credit. Castro deserves the criticism.
A governor of a northern Colombian province on Monday became the latest target of a probe that has tied several allies of President Alvaro Uribe to right-wing paramilitaries accused of massacres and atrocities.
Colombian prosecutors have ordered Magdalena province Gov. Trino Luna arrested on suspicion he colluded with the illegal militias who once fought a dirty war against the country’s four-decade-old rebel insurgency.
[…]
Luna, elected in 2024, was the only candidate who ran for the governorship. Other hopefuls later charged they had been pressured not to run and threatened by paramilitary commanders.
The governor told local radio that he would temporarily step down to allow the local government to continue working during the investigation. The president must suspend Luna from his post before the governor can be arrested.
The governor joins eight pro-Uribe lawmakers and a former security police chief who have been arrested on charges they cooperated with the illegal paramilitaries whose commanders have now been jailed after a peace deal with the government.
The scandal tying political supporters of President Alvaro Uribe with outlawed paramilitary leaders widened Monday as prosecutors filed electoral fraud charges against Trino Luna, the governor of the influential coastal state of Magdalena.
Also, Interpol disclosed that it had issued an international arrest warrant on kidnapping charges for Alvaro Araujo Noguera, a former congressman and minister who is the father of former Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo. She resigned last month after her brother, Sen. Alvaro Araujo, was jailed on suspicion of conspiring with paramilitaries to kidnap a political rival.
Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is to join peace talks between Colombia’s government and the country’s second-largest rebel group.
Negotiations over a ceasefire to end a four-decade insurgency by the National Liberation Army (ELN) have stalled, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said.
Mr Uribe gave no details on how the Colombian author would participate.
Interesting. Of course, as the story notes, Garcia Marquez has made symbolic appearances in such talks before, but to no avail.
The ELN is not anywhere as significant as the FARC, but any progress to de-militarize Colombian politics is a welcome one. As such, one can but hope for success in this venture.
Since Bush’s visit to Colombia was major news and part of the overall tour of Latin America, I blogged in on the main page. However, since this is the Colombia section, I wanted to archive and link those stories here as well:
Colombia is marking the 80th birthday of its most famous writer, the Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Aracataca, his hometown, woke up to 80 cannon salvos. Paper and metal yellow butterflies then filled public spaces.
Cities and towns across Colombia are holding events - but the author, who now lives in Mexico, is not expected to set foot in the country.
Two thoughts: 1) with as much violence as there is in Colombia, I am not sure that what locals want to hear is 80 cannon salvos, and 2) it is kind of sad that Garcia Marquez won’t be in country for the celebration.
Via WaPo we have a discussion of transition that Fernando Araújo took from kidnap victim of the FARC to Colombia’s foreign minister: The Short Road From Hostage to Envoy .
To put the time that he was in captivity:
Araújo might seem an odd choice for the post. He’s missed key events in recent world history, from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He was in guerrilla hands as President Hugo Chávez consolidated power in neighboring Venezuela and when Uribe rose to power.
Colombian prosecutors have ordered the arrest of the father of an ex-minister following an inquiry into links between politicians and right-wing militias.
Alvaro Araujo Noguera, a prominent former politician, is charged with helping to kidnap a political rival.
Of course, his son (a Senator) has already been arrested and his daughter was the Foreign Minister until she resigned less that two weeks ago.
