2004
In 10 August 2004, the National Security Archive (NSA) published a declassified 1991 intelligence report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which contained a list of several individuals identified as "Colombian narco-traffickers". The document states that it is "not finally evaluated" intelligence information. The source for the report and the reporting officer's comments were not declassified.[56]
The report listed then-Senator Álvaro Uribe as a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" and described him as "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels". It also stated that Uribe had "attacked all forms of the extradition treaty" and that his father had been murdered because of a "connection with the narcotic traffickers".[56]
In response, the Colombian Presidency made an official statement rejecting several of the accusations in the report, adding that the same information had been part of previous allegations during Uribe's 2002 presidential campaign.[56] It argued that Senator Uribe's position on the extradition treaty was available in the congressional archives for 1989 and had been reiterated in 2002 interviews: to postpone a proposed popular referendum on the matter until after the 1990 parliamentary and presidential elections, to prevent drug traffickers from influencing the results of the vote.[56]
The official communique also stated that Uribe's father had been killed by FARC in 1983 during a kidnapping attempt and that in 1991 Senator Uribe was studying at Harvard Extension School in the United States, as the Colombian Congress had been suspended during the sessions of the Constituent Assembly.[56] The statement concluded by saying that Uribe had extradited more than 170 individuals to several countries around the world and that the President opposed any modification to current extradition mechanisms.[56]
The NSA acknowledged that the information in the report was "only as good as its source" and that it was "difficult to verify the accuracy of the information" because of the details which remained classified.[56][57] The NSA added that the report was different from average field intelligence as some degree of evaluation had already taken place "via interfaces with other agencies", that the source believed the statements to be true without qualifications, that the report included detailed information suggesting it would be employed for multiple uses, that much of the other information in the report was accurate and verifiable, and that significant effort had been spent on compiling the information.[56]
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Conway stated that the report was raw, uncorroborated information from one source and that "no conclusions can be drawn from it".[58] Robert Zimmerman, U.S. Department of State deputy spokesman, rejected the allegations against Uribe and stated that his record was that of "a strong opponent of drug trafficking".[57] Zimmerman added that "we have no credible information that substantiates or corroborates the allegations in an unevaluated 1991 report".[59]
[edit] 2007
In 2007 Virginia Vallejo, media personality and former lover of Pablo Escobar, published her memoir "Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar" (Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar), where she accused several Colombian presidents of involvement with drug traffickers. She stated that Escobar "idolized" Uribe and that he and his partners in the Medellín Cartel had obtained "dozens of licenses for landing strips and hundreds for the aircraft and helicopters on which the infrastructure of the drug trafficking industry had been built" while Uribe served as Director of the Colombian Civil Aviation Agency (1980–1982).[60][61]
President Uribe denied Vallejo's allegations. He said he wasn’t a friend of Escobar "even when it was fashionable", that he had no business or political dealings with him and that he had seen Virginia Vallejo only once, in an airport. He added that, due to his political visibility, "he had seen Pablo Escobar many times, but from a distance". The president also claimed that, though he had begun wearing glasses only in 1990, Virginia Vallejo had referred to his "seminarist glasses" of 1983. [62] Uribe argued that he had been "waiting for 20 years" for anyone to present photographs of any alleged meetings between him and Escobar.[63][64] In an 16 October 2007 statement, the Director of Civil Aviation in Colombia said that former Director Uribe had implemented stronger regulations for the operation and licensing of aircraft, companies and landing strips, citing decree 2.303 of 1981 which introduced as a requirement a certificate from the National Council on Narcotics, which would be provided after consulting DAS, F-2, Customs, the Inspector General and Army Brigades. The statement mentioned that Director Uribe had already been investigated by the Inspector General of Colombia at his own request, leading to no formal charges.[65]
President Uribe accused an El Nuevo Herald correspondent in Colombia, Gonzalo Guillén, of being behind Virginia Vallejo's book, describing him as someone who had "dedicated his journalistic career to infamy and lies". The journalist denied any involvement, arguing that he had only interviewed Vallejo once, for a July 2006 article. Guillén said that Uribe had been angered after his earlier publication of another book, "The Confidants of Pablo Escobar", which contained claims about the Uribe family's ties to organized crime. BBC News reported that Guillén, who said he had received 24 death threats in three days, left Colombia after Uribe's accusations. [66] [67] [68]
Daniel Coronell, journalist and Revista Semana columnist, wrote an October 2007 opinion column mentioning the 15 June 1983 edition of Medellín's El Mundo newspaper, which had reported that Colombia's Civil Aviation provided a special permit to a helicopter belonging to Pablo Escobar, described as a landowner by the paper, which was used by Álvaro Uribe Vélez to travel to the area where his father Alberto Uribe Sierra had been murdered by the FARC. Coronell also wrote that the 16 June edition of El Colombiano contained an invitation to Alberto Uribe's funeral from Escobar's "Medellín sin tugurios" foundation. During a heated radio debate with Coronell, President Uribe argued that the helicopter had been assigned to him by Colombia's Civil Aviation authority, that he did not know it belonged to Pablo Escobar during the crisis and would have otherwise refused to board it, and that he returned to Medellín with his father's body by land. He also reiterated that he had no links to Escobar. [69][70]
On 9 December 2007 Gerardo Reyes of El Nuevo Herald published a story about the 1984 assassination of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla and the seizure of a helicopter found during the earlier raid of the Tranquilandia drug lab complex. According to the article, Cecilia Lara Bonilla, Rodrigo's sister, had made a sworn statement in July 1984, indicating that the slain minister thought the anti-drug operation had compromised important politicians throughout the country and that the seized helicopter belonged to Alberto Uribe Sierra, Álvaro Uribe's father. Police Colonel Jaime Ramírez Gómez, in another declaration, had stated that Lara Bonilla feared retaliation from the owners of the helicopter and the airplanes seized in Tranquilandia, without specifying any names at the time. In a telephone conversation with El Nuevo Herald, Cecilia Lara Bonilla stated that she stood by her earlier declarations and said she believed her brother "did have many doubts about Uribe [Vélez]. He did not express them clearly." According to El Nuevo Herald, the newspaper had requested, but did not receive, any comments from the Colombian President's Press Office in October, before the story was published.[71]
The article indicated that President Uribe had previously argued that the helicopter had been sold before the Tranquilandia operation.[71] The judicial process which followed Lara Bonilla's murder included a DAS report which stated that the seized helicopter was registered as the property of a private enterprise managed by Carlos Alberto Amórtegui Romero, one of whose partners was Alberto Uribe Sierra. Jaime Alberto Uribe Vélez, one of the late Uribe Sierra's sons, had declared seventeen days after the anti-drug raid that the helicopter had been sold by the company to a third party a month before the operation, as payment for a debt. The judicial archives for the investigation did not contain any formal record of the transaction.[71] The Colombian government sent a letter to El Nuevo Herald saying that Carlos Amórtegui, the legal representative of the company which owned the seized helicopter, had published a 22 May 1984 statement in Cromos magazine about the sale of the aircraft.[72]
Rodrigo Lara Restrepo, son of the murdered Minister of Justice, had been named Colombia's Anti-Corruption Czar a year and a half before the publication of the article. Lara Restrepo told the Miami newspaper that he would make a declaration in the following days.[71] Lara Restrepo later resigned his post, arguing that several government officials had known about the El Nuevo Herald story since October, without informing him about it, and that he had not previously read Cecilia Lara's 1984 statements. He added that he still believed in the Colombian government and the Uribe administration's fight against the drug cartels, but that his resignation was made as a sign of respect for his father.[72]
The head of the Colombian President's Press Office, César Mauricio Velásquez, said that he decided not to reply to correspondent Gerardo Reyes, who had made an e-mail inquiry, and also criticized the journalist. He added that he had not thought about informing Rodrigo Lara Restrepo. [72]
[edit] Parapolitics scandal
In November 2006, a political crisis emerged as several of Uribe's congressional supporters were questioned or charged by the Colombian Supreme Court and the office of the Attorney General for having alleged links to paramilitary groups. Álvaro Araújo, brother of Uribe's Foreign Minister María Consuelo Araújo, was among those summoned for questioning.[73] In November, the former ambassador to Chile, Salvador Arana, was charged for the murder of a mayor in a small town in the Department of Sucre.[74]. The Supreme Court sentenced Arana to 40 years in prison on December 2009.[75].
In April 2007, Senator Gustavo Petro made several accusations against President Uribe during a televised congressional debate about paramilitarism in Antioquia. Petro said that some of the Uribe family's farms in the north of the country had been previously used as staging grounds for paramilitary forces. He also showed a picture of Santiago Uribe, the President's brother, together with Fabio Ochoa, a drug dealer, in 1985. Petro also argued that Governor Uribe's office allowed paramilitary personnel to participate in some of the legal cooperative neighborhood watch groups known as CONVIVIR. Another accusation concerned the possible participation of a helicopter belonging to the former Antioquia Governor's administration during a paramilitary massacre.[76]
Two days later, President Uribe publicly revealed that former US Vice President Al Gore had cancelled his participation in a pro-environment event Uribe was to attend in Miami due to the continuing allegations against him. The Colombian President reacted by organizing a press conference during which he addressed several of the accusations Senator Petro and others had made against him. Uribe argued that his family had nothing to do with any massacres and that they had already sold the implicated farms several years before the alleged events. He also stated that the Uribes and the Ochoas were both famous in the horse breeding business, causing their meetings to be both common and public. He claimed that the helicopter's hours and missions had been strictly logged, making it impossible for it to have participated in any massacre. Uribe said that he supported the CONVIVIR groups but was not solely responsible for their creation, adding that other civilian and military authorities also participated in their oversight. He also said that he dismantled some CONVIVIR groups when doubts began to surround their activities.[76][77]
On 22 April 2008, former senator Mario Uribe Escobar, one of the Colombian President's cousins and a close political ally, was arrested after being denied asylum at the Costa Rican embassy in Bogotá, as part of a judicial inquiry into the links between politicians and paramilitary groups. Mario Uribe has been accused of meeting with paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso in order to plan land seizures.[78]
On 23 April 2008, President Uribe revealed that a former paramilitary fighter had accused him of helping to plan the 1997 massacre of El Aro, 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.[79] 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 Manosalva, who had died months before the date of the meeting where the massacre was planned.[80]
[edit] DAS scandal
In May 2009 Colombian prosecutors officially began an investigation on a series of illegal wiretapping and spying activities carried out against opposition politicians, judges, journalists and others by the Department of Administrative Security (DAS).[81] The probe has involved several of President's Uribe top aides and former high-ranking personnel within the Department.[81]
Former DAS counterintelligence director Jorge Alberto Lagos has told investigators that information on the country's Supreme Court judges was provided to Bernardo Moreno and José Obdulio Gaviria, two of Uribe's aides.[81] Gaviria has claimed that criminals have tried to damage the government's image as part of a "political war" against the administration.[81] El Tiempo has criticized these explanations, raising questions about the President's knowledge of these activities.[81] Uribe himself has denied ordering any illegal wiretapping and claims that those responsible for spying on the opposition are part of "a mafia group that hurts the Colombian Democracy, freedom, the country and the government itself."[82]
The DAS, an "intelligence service that answers to the president" as described by the Washington Post[81], has been the subject of earlier controversies during the Uribe administration. According to Revista Semana, revelations about the infiltration of paramilitaries affected the entity under former DAS chief Jorge Noguera in 2007 and further accusations have continued to surface.[83] The magazine reported that information gathered by the DAS has been allegedly forwarded to paramilitaries, narcotraffickers and guerrillas.[83]
Previously, former DAS computer systems chief Rafael García had claimed that the Department and Colombian paramilitaries were involved in a plan to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.[84]
[edit] 2007-2008 Colombia-Venezuela-Ecuador crisis
Although on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum, up until 2007 Colombia and Venezuela had only one major impasse in their relations, the Rodrigo Granda affair, which had been overcome thanks to the direct talks between Uribe and Chávez. Álvaro Uribe's main political problem during 2007 was his handling of the humanitarian exchange situation: the FARC guerrillas have under their possession over 700 hostages, living under very difficult conditions in the vast Colombian jungle. These hostages included presidential candidate and French citizen Ingrid Betancourt (now freed), three American citizens (now freed), and several Colombian politicians and law enforcers. Some of the captives have been in the jungle for over 10 years. For the release of 40 of these hostages (the so called "canjeables" or "exchangeables") the FARC demands a Demilitarized Zone that includes the towns of Florida and Pradera. The government has refused to comply with this demand, deciding instead to push for a military rescue of the hostages, or by searching the mediation of third parties like Switzerland and the Catholic Church.
As all of those plans failed to get any positive outcome, Uribe appointed Senator Piedad Córdoba, to mediate between the government and the guerrillas in an attempt to secure the liberation of the hostages. Córdoba then asked Chávez to mediate also, with the consent of President Uribe. French president Nicolas Sarkozy was also willing to help in the mediation effort.
On 8 November 2007 Chávez met with alias "Iván Márquez" one of the highest members of the FARC and some other members of its Secretariat at the Palacio de Miraflores in a widely publicized event. After the event Chavez promised to deliver evidence that some of the hostages remained alive. When Chávez met with Sarkozy on 19 November, Chávez was still waiting on the evidence. Lacking the "proof of life" that was promised to the families of the hostages, and seeing prominent FARC members using the media attention to promote their own ideology, Uribe became disgruntled with the mediation process.
On November 22 Uribe abruptly ended the mediation after Chávez spoke with the high command of the Colombian military during a call made by Córdoba.[citation needed] Uribe had conditioned Chávez against any attempt to talk to military high command. Chávez initially accepted the decision, but tensions escalated as the presidents increasingly attacked each other verbally, with Chávez claiming that Uribe and the U.S. simply preferred the war continue, and Uribe implying Chávez supported the rebels.
Chávez announced a "freeze" of political relations and called Uribe a "pawn of the empire" and cut contact with the Colombian government, including rejecting calls from the Colombian embassy in Caracas. He announced his intent to sharply reduce bilateral commerce.[85]
Chávez continued negotiating with the rebels and eventually secured the unilateral release of two, then four more, hostages to Venezuela which were meant as signs of good faith and preceded calls for more negotiations, which Uribe dismissed.
During the release of two hostages at the end of the convoluted Operation Emmanuel, Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramón Rodriguez Chacín told FARC fighters: "We are with you...Be strong. We are following your cause." Soon after, on 11 January, Chávez claimed that both FARC and ELN weren't terrorist organizations, but legitimate armies with a political project respected in Venezuela. He then proceeded to ask for all nations to stop calling FARC and ELN "terrorist groups," and rather give them belligerent status.[86]
During the scheduled visit of State Secretary Condoleezza Rice to Colombia, Chavez accused both the Colombian and American governments of plotting a military aggression against Venezuela.[87] Uribe said 4 March 2008 that he will go before the International Criminal Court to accuse Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of "supporting and financing genocides."[88]
A regional crisis began after Colombian troops killed FARC commander Raúl Reyes in a guerrilla camp inside Ecuadorian borders on 1 March. Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which has a maritime dispute with Colombia, cut diplomatic ties with Colombia as a response, with Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa ordering troops to their respective borders with Colombia.[89] Uribe in response placed the armed forces on high alert but did not move his troops to confront them even though the Colombian army is larger than Ecuador's and Venezuela's combined.[90]
Several countries in the Americas criticized the incursion into Ecuador as a violation of national sovereignty,[91] which was also denounced by an OAS resolution.[citation needed] The United States backed Colombia's position and internal support for the action remained strong, Uribe's popularity rising as a result.[92]
The impasse was finally solved when Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic, hosted an emergency summit of Latin American nations in Santo Domingo. He got Uribe, Correa, and Chavez to shake hands. Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega also announced the restoration of relations with Colombia at which Uribe told him that he would send him the bill for the plane fare for his ambassador.[93]
In early March 2010, judge Eloy Velasco of Spain brought forth allegations against Hugo Chávez, the FARC and ETA of conspiring to assassinate president Álvaro Uribe, along with other Colombian political figures.[94]
[edit] Claims of bribery to approve re-election bill
In April 2008, Yidis Medina, a former congresswoman from the pro-government Colombian Conservative Party, claimed that members of President Uribe's administration had offered her to appoint local officials in her home province, in exchange for voting in favor of the 2004 reelection bill. According to Medina, the government had not fulfilled that promise, prompting her declaration. The Attorney General of Colombia ordered her arrest, after which she turned herself over to authorities and testified to the Supreme Court as part of the investigation. The opposition Alternative Democratic Pole party asked for President Uribe to be investigated for bribery.[95] After the declarations made by Medina, the Supreme Court of Colombia sent copies of the process to other judicial authorities, who have the jurisdiction to investigate several former and current cabinet members and other high officials. The Accusations Commission of the Colombian Congress will study the matter and decide if there are enough merits to officially investigate President Uribe. [96][97]
[edit] Hostage rescue
On 2 July 2008 a covert rescue operation by the Colombian Special Forces disguised as FARC guerillas resulted in the rescue of Senator and former Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell and eleven soldiers and police officers. It was done without bloodshed and led to the capture of two guerilla leaders. The operation heightened Uribe's already soaring popularity. Uribe stated that the rescue operation "was guided in every way by the light of the Holy Spirit, the protection of our Lord and the Virgin Mary." [57] The hostages agreed, indicating that they had spent much time in captivity praying the rosary, and Ms. Betancourt, formerly a lapsed Catholic who prayed daily on a wooden rosary which she made while a hostage[98], attributed the rescue as follows: "I am convinced this is a miracle of the Virgin Mary. To me it is clear she has had a hand in all of this."[57]
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