Colombian parapolitics scandal

Relations between politicians, government officials, security forces, other sectors of Colombian society and paramilitary groups have developed for years, resulting in the latter's infiltration of Colombian politics and government.

According to the newspaper El Tiempo, one of the paramilitary leaders involved, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, sought to achieve total power in the Atlantic Coast and eventually over Colombia.[3] To achieve this, he and other paramilitary leaders contacted politicians both before, during and after the AUC demobilizations.

In 2001, some 32 people, including members of congress, politicians, paramilitary leaders and others, met at Santa Fe de Ralito in order to sign a secret document known as the Pact of Paramillo Knot or as the "Pact of Ralito". The text of the document called for "refounding the country", signing a new social contract and maintaining national independence, among other statements. When the document's existence was revealed in late 2006, participants such as former congresswoman Elenora Pineda have argued that the document sought to be a contribution to the search of peace in Colombia. Opposition senator Juan Manuel López Cabrales, who also signed the document, argued that he did so in ignorance and under pressure.[4]

After the demobilizations had concluded and the scandal broke, several arrests have been made, most recently on February 15, 2007. Senator Álvaro Araújo Castro, brother of former foreign minister María Consuelo Araújo, was among five congressmen arrested on that day.[5] Also arrested were Mauricio Pimiento, Dieb Maloof, Alfonso Campo Escobar, and Luis Eduardo Vives. His arrest lead to her resignation four days later.

The Supreme Court investigation into ties between paramilitary groups and congress has been based largely on files discovered on a laptop computer belonging to the organization of former paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, aka Jorge 40.[6][7]

The so-called "para-political scandal" was set in motion in June 2005 after Clara López Obregón, a member of the opposition Alternative Democratic Pole party, formally denounced before the Colombian Supreme Court the existence of links between paramilitaries and some congressmen.[8] Previously, paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso had said during an interview that some 35% of the elected Congress in 2002 were friendly towards their group.

The confiscation of a laptop computer belonging to the organization of paramilitary leader Jorge 40 gave increased momentum to the scandal. It contained numerous files that mentioned or implicated politicians and members of the security forces that collaborated with his paramilitary force.[9]

On November 9, 2006, the Supreme Court ordered the detention of three implicated congressmen.

On November 21, 2006, Rafael García Torres, the former Information Technologies Chief of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) was questioned by the Supreme Court after being arrested and charged with taking bribes from paramilitaries and narcotraffickers in exchange for erasing or altering their judicial history from the state intelligence database. García claimed to have knowledge of Jorge 40's plans to corrupt congressmen and install those friendly to his causes.[17]

García had already contended that former chief of DAS Jorge Noguera maintained a close relationship with Jorge 40 and that they met several times to talk about local politics, including support for candidates in the 2003] municipal, gubernatorial and presidential elections, among them the Magdalena Department governor Trino Luna[18] and in the Cesar Department with Hernando Molina Araújo, among others.[16]

President Uribe publicly asked Noguera to appear before the Attorney General's office, but Noguera refused alleging economic and security reasons. Noguera was then acting consul-general in Milan, Italy.[19] He later resigned, returned to the country and appeared before judicial authorities. On February 22, 2007 Noguera was arrested, accused of having ties to paramilitaries.[20][21]

On June 11, 2008, the Colombian Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of Jorge Noguera.[22] According to the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective, Noguera was only released due to procedural defects; however the charges against him -conspiracy to commit a crime, misuse of authority through an arbitrary and unjust act, and improper use of classified or secret information- may still be prosecuted.[23]

The former president of the Superior Council of Judicature, José Alfredo Escobar Araújo acknowledged that he had a friendship with Italian mobster Giorgio Sale, but denied knowledge of Sale's activities as narcotrafficker. Sale has been associated with paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, himself accused of money laundering, and the Italian mafia group known as 'Ndrangheta.[24][25]

On November 28, 2006 Escobar Araújo said that he would accept any decision and obey any orders from the Magistrates of the Penal Chamber of Judicature regarding his connection to Sale.

Escobar Araújo's wife, Ana Margarita Fernández, was an official in the Inspector General's office. Escobar resigned the presidency of the Superior Council on November 30 but continued as a magistrate of that body.[24]

On November 15, 2006 former president and leader of the opposing Liberal Party, César Gaviria, made a call to support the Supreme Court on the situation and uncover the truth behind the paramilitary-politicians links. He alleged that problems were not only in congress, but also in other sectors of Colombian society. He further alleged that other elected officials indirectly benefited from the paramilitary pressure over voters.

The President [Uribe] had a passive attitude throughout the campaign in relation to these subjects and I would say that he has been a little too passive all the time, but he is still on time to assume a more decisive position to confront these problems.

— Cesar Gaviria

Two days later on November 17 in a speech directed to the Supreme Court, president Uribe reacted to the Court's decision to indict any politician linked to paramilitaries and said that "criminal responsibilities are individual" and that "the truth that was surfacing was a result of his democratic security plan and the demobilization process of the paramilitary groups". He also mentioned that "the nation needed to know the links between politicians and the guerrilla groups" and that "the judicial and political search for truth for past and present events done by guerrillas and paramilitaries should be supported"

On November 29 prior to a debate in Congress, President Uribe reasserted that penal responsibility was individual and that it was necessary to investigate politicians with ties to guerrillas. He also commented that the suspect congressmen were being accused for acts perpetrated before he assumed the presidency in 2002 as a way of distancing himself from the growing scandal. On the same day, the former Interior Minister during President Samper's administration and prominent Liberal Party leader, Horacio Serpa, called for the Chamber of Representative's Commission of Accusations to investigate President Uribe's possible links to paramilitaries.

On April 23, 2008 President Uribe revealed that a former paramilitary fighter had accused him of helping to plan a 1997 massacre, a charge which he said was under official investigation. Uribe described the accuser as a "disgruntled convict with an axe to grind", denied the charges and said there was proof of his innocence.[26] The Colombian newsweekly Revista Semana reported that the paramilitary in question, Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández, had not mentioned Uribe during previous declarations made more than five years ago, when he was sentenced for his own role in the massacre. The magazine also listed a number of possible inconsistencies in his most recent testimony, including the alleged presence of General Hernando Manosalva, who had died months before the date of the meeting where the massacre was planned.[27]

His cousin and former Colombian senator, Mario Uribe, was arrested under suspicion of ties to the right-wing paramilitary groups.[26][28]

On April 9, 2008 the Álvaro Uribe Administration supported a political reform law, presented by some congressmen, to tackle the growing scandal of parapolitics in the Colombian Senate. By then 51 Congressmen were suspected of parapolitics. 29 of them were in jail awaiting trial.[32] The government proposed the "Empty Chair" solution; Senators that are suspended or jailed for alleged ties with illegal armed groups may not be replaced by their political parties. This way the parties would be forced to keep their fraction "clean". A majority of the Colombian House of Representatives agreed with the law. The biggest opposition party Polo Democrático Alternativo, also one of the few parties not affected by the scandal, voted against the law, saying the current legislative chambers have no credibility to solve the problem.[33] On April 16, 2008, one day after the vote in the House, Senator Carlos Garcia, President of the Partido de la U, began to be officially investigated under suspicion of paramilitary ties. Garcia resigned from his Partido de la U position, but said he would not quit Congress. [34][35]

• List of people called by the Colombian Supreme court in the Parapolitics Scandal
• Paramilitarism in Colombia
• Corruption in Colombia