Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | Making matters worse for the Alvaro Uribe government, senior paramilitary Gustavo Ramírez, who had made allegations against a congressman and six local mayors, was shot dead in the capital, Bogotá, police confirmed yesterday. |
Implications | President Uribe’s paramilitary peace process has been undermined by suspected links between rightist militia and members of his ruling coalition. |
Outlook | Peace efforts are undoubtedly in jeopardy, but initiatives have overcome earlier setbacks such as the AUC inner circle boycotting the judicial process. |
Paramilitaries Protest
The AUC leadership is refusing to give further evidence to the Colombian judiciary, as required under the Justice and Peace Law. The controversial decision came in protest at a Supreme Court ruling that altered the initial terms of the peace pact. The law originally offered reduced or commuted sentences to demobilised militia or leftist rebels, but the top court has made the conditions less lenient. President Uribe has spoken out against the judicial ruling and announced plans yesterday to seek revised legislation from Congress. He simultaneously warned the AUC that demobilised members would lose benefits—chiefly the suspension of extradition orders—if they failed to co-operate with authorities. Several leading members of the umbrella paramilitary organisation are wanted in the United States on drug-trafficking charges (see Colombia: 23 July 2007: Colombian President Approves Extraditions, Appeals for U.S. Trade Pact).
Simultaneously, the peace process sustained another blow after demobilised AUC member Ramírez, who had given evidence against accused Colombian lawmakers and local politicians, was shot dead in Bogotá. He hailed from the eastern Casanare province, which is at the centre of the paramilitary-politico scandal. Ramírez had implicated congressman Oscar Wilches in his testimony, who was arrested late last week (see Colombia: 20 July 2007: Paramilitary-Politico Scandal in Colombia Continues with Another Legislator Arrest). A further four members of Congress were publicly linked to the scandal yesterday. They too hail from a party loyal to President Uribe (Citizenship Convergence) and have been named as Luis Alberto Gil, Oscar Reyes, Alfonso Riaño, and José Manuel Herrera. The legislators have been called to give evidence, but are not under arrest. Fourteen serving members of the legislative branch have been arrested in connection with the “para-gate” scandal to date. A fifteenth is on the run.
Outlook and Implications
President Uribe won re-election in May last year with an improved majority from his own historical first victory. He remains a fiercely popular politician, but the paramilitary-politico scandal is damaging his reputation, not least abroad. Another crisis in the peace process comes as he attempts to convince U.S. legislators that his country adequately protects human rights in order to secure support for the passage of a free-trade agreement through the North American country’s Congress. In recent days the Uribe administration has also clashed with unions, accusing labour activists of supporting leftist rebels (see Colombia: 24 July 2007: Unions Accused of Supporting Colombian Rebels). The U.S. Congress is dominated by the Democratic Party, which has expressed concerns over the inadequate protection of labour rights in the South American country. Poor relations between the Colombian government and labour unions strengthen barriers to securing the accord.