COLOMBIA: Colombian authorities yesterday ordered the arrest of president Alvaro Uribe's cousin and one of his closest allies for suspected ties to paramilitary death squads in a deepening political scandal.
The investigation into Mario Uribe, who has been the president's political confidant for years, could fuel concerns among US Democrats who oppose a Colombian trade deal partly because of worries over lingering paramilitary influence in politics.
Alvaro Uribe, a close US partner, has eased Colombia's conflict by driving back rebels and negotiating the surrender of paramilitary fighters who are accused of carrying out massacres and drug trafficking in the name of counter-insurgency.
But more than 60 lawmakers - many from political parties allied to the president - are under investigation in the so-called "para-political" scandal. At least 32 of those are in jail while prosecutors investigate their ties to the militias.
The detention of Mario Uribe, a second cousin to the president and a former congressional chief, was ordered on conspiracy charges on suspicion that he struck deals with former paramilitary commanders when they were still active, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
"Uribe is being investigated for a meeting he had with former paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso before the elections of March 10th, 2002, and with Jairo Castillo Peralta, alias 'Pitirri', in November 1998," it said.
The former lawmaker, who has previously denied any wrongdoing, will be arrested if he does not surrender to the chief prosecutor's office in Bogota.
He stepped down from the senate last October to protect himself from questions from the supreme court, which investigates public officials. But the attorney general has kept up the inquiry into his ties with militia warlords.
Hundreds of former paramilitary commanders disbanded their armies under a deal with Mr Uribe's government, which allowed them short jail terms for promising to confess their crimes and compensate their victims.
But rights groups and some US lawmakers want Mr Uribe to do more to curb the former commanders' lingering influence and protect trade unionists before they back a free trade deal for his government.
- (Reuters)