Inspector General slams NGO report on criminal electoral candidates

Inspector General slams NGO report on criminal electoral candidates
Friday, 02 September 2011 07:07
Toni Peters

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Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez Maldonado said "<the one> who can disqualify is the Inspector General's Office, not Corporacion Nuevo Arco Iris," at the Ibero-American Congress on Electoral Law in Bogota.

He went on to say that the report "affects the transparency of the electoral processes," as Nuevo Arco Iris "has held legal discussions with actors who have interests in this debate."

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Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras requested the assistance of Nuevo Arco Iris in July to identify political candidates with "legal inconsistencies."

Vargas Lleras defended the report saying that Nuevo Arco Iris had performed field work "and simply is more input which was forwarded to intelligence agencies to verify the accuracy of the field information."

The deal between the government and the NGO was criticized heavily by politicians loyal to former President Alvaro Uribe, who felt the NGO was biased because of ongoing clashes between Uribe and Nuevo Arco Iris president Leon Valencia.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18730-inspector-general-slams-ngo-report-on-criminal-electoral-candidates.html

That's how justice works in a society that is trying to recover from Mob Rule and become a decent society again--investigations go forward on many fronts (NGOs, journalists, prosecutors, legislative commissions, et al), and those who survive assassination attempts and aren't cowed by death threats perpetrated by the Mob that has been running the country, publish their findings and prosecutions and other legal actions proceed, to dismantle the Mob.

It's no small irony that Uribe's henchmen are accusing NGO president president Leon Valencia of "clashing with Uribe"--as anybody with spine and character and the ability to investigate--should be doing in Colombia. It is a very dangerous thing to do, to "clash" with Uribe. Many have died who have dared to do so. AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM. It is NOT "bias" to oppose Al Capone! And Uribe was like a hundred--nay, a thousand--Al Capones!

THOUSANDS of innocent people were murdered by his spying/death squad organization. Uribe election fraud has been described as "sordid in the extreme" by Fr. Javier Giraldo Moreno, S.J., one of the most notable human rights advocates in Colombia, in Uribe's home base of Antioquia (location of Medellin). And his descriptions of atrocities committed by Uribe's Mob are hair-raising.** Some one hundred of Uribe's closest political cronies are under investigation or already in jail for drug trafficking, ties to the death squads, bribery, election fraud, land theft, ponzie schemes and other crimes. Currently, his spy organization, DAS, is under investigation for spying on everybody--including judges and prosecutors--and is suspected of preparing "hit lists" for the death squads. Recent testimony indicates that Uribe was getting millions in aid money from the U.S./Bush Junta, as well as equipment and technical assistance, for illegal domestic spying, with an American go-between who was reporting directly to the U.S. embassy on Uribe's spying operation. The two Mobs--the Uribe Mob and the Bush Mob--were working together and one can only imagine what their main purpose was (my guess: consolidation and control of the trillion+ dollar cocaine revenue stream).

The first paragraph of the OP is garbled and I wish you would straighten it out and give some context. I'm guessing that Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez Maldonado has sided with Uribe in this controversy--and that makes him automatically suspect, in my book, of connections to Uribe's criminal organization. The fact (if it is a fact) that the NGO "held legal discussions with actors who have interests in this debate" seems immaterial. Of course they had "legal discussions." They were doing an investigation with legal implications! I'm not sure I understand what this ruling was, nor if it makes any sense.

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**Letters of Fr. Javier Giraldo Moreno, S.J.:
http://www.lab.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=613:usa-protests-over-uribe-appointment&catid=66:analysis&Itemid=39
http://colombiasupport.blogspot.com/2010/11/letter-of-response-from-javier-giraldo.html

The Interior Ministry and Arco Iris signed a contract in order to have the NGO carry out an investigation to find candidates with possible links to the mafia or other criminal groups in a certain number of towns and cities.

You can read a news report on that here:

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/17525-government-asks-ngo-to-investigate-criminal-election-candidates.html

Considering that Arco Iris has done a lot of good work with past research on paramilitary-related politicians, much of which was ultimately confirmed by the Supreme Court in its rulings against congressmen and others, this move was evidently going to earn the anger of Uribe's pals.

Naturally, the results of the current investigation do not have any automatic legal value without concrete decisions from the relevant authorities, which is to be expected, but as the Interior Minister indicated, such field research does provide useful raw information that can be either dismissed or further corroborated upon verification.

The complete research has not been published anywhere, that I know of, but the Interior Minister says he forwarded the information to other authorities. Details also eventually reached the political parties and informed certain articles or headlines in the press, both of which contributed to forcing at least a partial purge of criminals or their associates.

Here is one example:

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18397-cambio-radical-revokes-their-endorsement-of-161-candidates.html

As this was going on, pro-Uribe politicians began to complain that: a)They had not been directly provided with all of the information from Arco Iris but only with a few names. b)They considered that Arco Iris researchers like León Valencia and Claudia López, among others, are heavily biased against Uribe and would therefore maliciously use the investigation to attack his supporters.

One such instance is below:

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18623-u-party-demands-results-of-investigation-against-suspicious-candidates-revealed.html

Now the Inspector General, who comes from the most orthodox and backward ranks of the Conservative Party, has declared that, legally speaking, only his office has the power to formally declare registered candidates as "ineligible" or otherwise disqualify them if there are outstanding legal issues (such as existing court rulings, legal prohibitions concerning conflicts of interest, etc.) preventing them from running. He is also heavily criticizing the Interior Ministry for using the Arco Iris report because it has no inherent legal weight.

In the end, he does have a point, technically, and perhaps it would have been much better to freely publish the entire report so that everyone could reach their own conclusions regardless of the necessary judicial processes...but the fact Inspector General Ordoñez is coming out to say this with such an aggressive attitude is a very clear political expression of the fear and disgust from pro-Uribe politicians or others with criminal connections and legal problems who have felt their position threatened.

As I mentioned above, what little information has already been revealed has had a limited political effect, even if it's true that not all of the accusations could possibly be judicially confirmed at this stage. Needless to say though, both Uribe and the Colombian rightwing wouldn't even want that much to happen. They want silence and impunity, not being publicly shamed or facing future legal trouble.

Fr. Giraldo also says that Uribe put criminals and drug traffickers into public offices--in addition to extremely sordid election fraud and horrible atrocities such as murder and torture committed by his criminal organization. And Uribe's Mob connections go way back to the beginning of his career.

Like rightwing criminals here, they're as good at whining as they are at murder, torture, terror, bullying, theft, lying, spying and election fraud. What a malignancy this Mob is, there and here!

It looks like they have gotten to the Inspector General. I sure hope that isn't true. He really doesn't have a point, as far as I can see. Knowing what we know about Uribe from other sources, I think it's pretty likely that the NGO's investigation and report is very careful-- scrupulous, cautious--and doesn't tell half the story of Uribe's network of political henchmen and thugs, criminals in public office and gross misuse of government powers to cheat, steal, spy on people and kill them--and then using government powers to cover it up and get away with it. Fr. Giraldo talks about the extreme misuse of the justice system, under Uribe, to falsely convict and to cover up crimes. So this MOB really has Rumfeldian arrogance to complain about who is investigating them.