Cousin of Colombian President Uribe Arrested For Alleged Ties With Paramilitaries

Cousin of Colombian President Uribe Arrested For Alleged Ties With Paramilitaries
Posted by Staff on Feb 26th, 2010

Top Story — A former Colombian senator and second cousin of President Álvaro Uribe, Mario Uribe, was arrested on Wednesday on charges that he had links to the paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).

Colombian authorities arrested him in the city of Medellin and plan to transfer him to the capital, Bogota.

The arrest relates to charges that Mario Uribe conspired with the AUC in the 1990s to gain control of land in northeastern Colombia. Jairo Castillo, alias “Pitirri,” says he saw a meeting in which Mario Uribe negotiated with paramilitaries for the land. Mario Uribe denies the allegations.

Mario Uribe was previously arrested in 2008 on similar charges but released due to insufficient evidence.

President Uribe said that his administration needs to make more progress toward uncovering ties between the government and FARC guerillas, but did not comment on the arrest of Mario Uribe.

http://latindispatch.com/2010/02/26/cousin-of-colombian-president-uribe-arrested-for-alleged-ties-with-paramilitaries/

"President Uribe said that his administration needs to make more progress toward uncovering ties between the government and FARC guerillas, but did not comment on the arrest of Mario Uribe." --from the OP

"...ties between the government and FARC guerillas..."???

Did Uribe just twist, distort and mangle the truth--that it was rightwing AUC paramilitaries (not the leftist FARC guerillas) that his cousin was involved with? Or is this an error of the reporter?

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said his administration hasn’t made enough progress on uncovering ties between Marxist rebels and the government and called for renewed investigations into the issue.

blah blah

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-25/colombia-s-uribe-calls-for-farc-probe-after-cousin-arrested.html

And I wonder if he's smart enough not to try to blackmail the CIA. But I think he may go the way of Diem even if he doesn't try that dangerous ploy. He knows too much.