Secret Meeting Sparks Inquiry: Latest Chapter in Colombian Scandal

Source: Washington Post

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.

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

those are USA words. Another american dictator who should be in jail.

doing an expose of the filth in Colombia that could kill one of Bush's filthiest dreams--"free trade" (free fire zone on union leaders) with Colombia?

It's very...um, curious.

Mass grave discovered in Colombia
www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-24 13:05:55

BOGOTA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Colombian authorities have found amass grave of 32 people believed to have been killed by irregular armed forces in northwest Colombia.

The remains were discovered in the municipality of Ituango in Antioquia Province, the experts from the National Unit of Justice and Peace Prosecutor told a press conference on Tuesday.

Local residents said that there were at least other 14 mass graves with remains of people killed by the paramilitary or guerrilla in the region.

The government was told of the graves after a peace deal with the United Self Defense of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group which has been blamed for many massacres.

More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/24/content_10102263.htm