The Colombian government hurried up to dismiss the article published by Los Angeles Times on Sunday which, quoting a CIA intelligente report, states that Mario Montoya Uribe, commander of the Colombian army,
…and a paramilitary group jointly planned and conducted a military operation in 2002 to eliminate Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin, a city in northwestern Colombia that has been a center of the drug trade.
At least 14 people were killed during the operation, and opponents of Uribe allege that dozens more disappeared in its aftermath.
The intelligence report, reviewed by The Times, includes information from another Western intelligence service and indicates that U.S. officials have received similar reports from other reliable sources.
Even though it’s not the first time that Colombians have heard allegations about links between Montoya and the paramilitaries (this site states that Montoya, when he was a lieutenant in the late 70s, was part of an anticommunist paramilitary group known as the Triple A (American Anticommunist Alliance, similar to its Argentine counterpart), which was dennounced by top militaries at the time, according to a now defunct Mexican paper), the fact that an American intelligence agency has an information of this kind is serious, as ruling politicians and Uribe’s supporters don’t believe “communist” NGOs.
Finally this weekend it was confirmed: 39-year-old newsreader Claudia Hoyos is running for mayor of Cartagena on October 2007 local elections. Hoyos hosts a “political gossip” section on CM& newscast (broadcast on weeknights at 21:30 on state-run Canal Uno; the above video shows last Friday telecast). She made the news several weeks ago, when it was rumoured that she was having an affair with top politicial Germán Vargas Lleras (grandson of former Colombian president Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who ruled the country between 1966 and 1970) and leader of the Radical Change party.
I posted this morning an article on equinoXio digital magazine where I say that, while I don’t want to tarnish her qualities and skills as a journalist, I feel that, though she could easily win at the polls because of her fame and her image, she has not enough experience at public charges to aspire to such an important position. Cartagena is a very troubled city. It has a small zone “to show”, where important events such as Miss Colombia or this week’s Inter American Press Association meeting, where Bill Gates showed up (and said some corny things such as “I wish when I was growing up there were been the internet [...] I would have been smarter”), are held. At this zone, wealthy people can enjoy themselves, while at the other side of the town, at Nelson Mandela neighbourhood, other people… most of them black people, starve and have no access to public services. Sometimes the government tries to “hide” them or prevent them to get close to the Historical Centre, by picking them up into trucks and taking them to “special” places, so foreigners “think Colombia is like Monaco”. Corruption is another big issue in this Caribbean city.
The week ending this Saturday will be remembered as an outrageous one in Colombia. First, while Bush was visiting Bogotá, senator Piedad Córdoba attended a left-wing forum in Mexico. She is one of the most outspoken opponents to Uribe, but I think she kinda overacted asking Latin American progressive governments to “break diplomatic relationships with Colombia” because Uribe’s government, in the middle of a storm because the parapolitical scandal, is “illegitimate”.
I voted for Ms. Córdoba because she has been a spokesperson for discriminated people. Nevertheless, even though those bad things about Uribe may be true (the alleged electoral fraud, the alleged links with the paramilitaries, etc.), but as long as the judicial investigations don’t finish and show their results, she should keep her mouth shut. Maybe, as I said in an article for equinoXio I published early this week, she has made a huge political mistake… that’s not the way of making a true opposition. Atrabilioso’s Jaime Restrepo even asked her to be impeached or investigated for “treason”.
On Monday, more Colombian blogs were hacked. Again the lamer blamed Jaime Ruiz. Unlike three weeks ago, this time some bloggers actually think, though recognized not having any evidence, that Ruiz, an outspoken and somewhat hateful right-wing blogger who indeed has an excellent writing, might be involved. Blogger and journalist Víctor Solano opened a space to discuss the issue, but I think he started the wrong way by posting a “denounce” written by one of the affected. At the end, after a lot of comments with accusations, Solano had to close the comments. So far, the lamer remains unknown. (more…)
