Colombian Congress weakened by paramilitary scandal
By Hugh Bronstein
BOGOTA, May 6 (Reuters) - Colombia's Congress is in crisis as scores of lawmakers are investigated for suspected collusion with right-wing death squads in a scandal creeping closer to conservative President Alvaro Uribe.
More than 60 of the country's 268 legislators are under investigation for suspected illegal dealings with drug-running paramilitaries organized as private militias in the 1980s to help landowners beat back Marxist guerrillas.
About 30 lawmakers are in prison awaiting trial and the accusations include using paramilitary thugs to intimidate voters into supporting their candidacies.
More investigations are expected, heightening worries that Congress is headed toward paralysis.
A cartoon in news magazine Semana this week showed the Congress building converted into a big jail cell.
Most of the accused are from parties loyal to Uribe, but he remains highly popular, helped by strong economic growth and successes in his U.S.-backed campaign against guerrillas and drug traffickers.
A prominent government official is calling for parties loyal to the president to be dissolved after Uribe's cousin and close political ally, Mario Uribe, was arrested last month.
"You have to ask what has happened to allow people to commit crimes while hiding behind the faith that voters have put in the president," said Luis Carlos Restrepo, Colombia's peace commissioner and a close ally of the president.
His comments were read by analysts as an attempt by the Uribe camp to distance him from the scandal-tainted Congress.
"NATIONAL SURGERY"
Both opposition and pro-Uribe lawmakers say the crisis, while painful in the short-term, will bring benefits if prosecutors go far enough in purging Congress of corruption.
"Going through surgery can be traumatic. But if there is a malignancy, you have to cut it out," said Uribe loyalist Santiago Castro, a member of the lower house.
"The paramilitary scandal is our national surgery."
Cecilia Lopez, an opposition senator, said the investigations will eventually help rather than hurt Congress's credibility.
"Even if there are only 100 members left standing, at least they will be 100 members who are clean and committed and ready to rebuild Colombia's institutions," she said.
Corruption is a big problem in Colombia, the world's top cocaine exporting country trapped in a war that began in the 1960s with the birth of left-wing guerrilla movements.
The rebels refuse to talk peace with the government.
More than 30,000 paramilitaries have turned in their guns over the last four years in exchange for benefits including reduced jail terms for crimes ranging from massacres to cocaine smuggling.
But many paramilitaries -- who formed secret alliances with politicians, rogue army officers and Colombia's business elite -- have broken the terms of the pact by refusing to cut their ties to drug trafficking.
Uribe's international standing has been damaged by the "para-political" crisis, contributing to resistance in the U.S. Congress to passing a free trade deal with Colombia.
He remains a hero to many at home although the scandal may limit his options for seeking a constitutional amendment to allow him to run for an unprecedented third term in 2010.
Uribe has named no successor and is leaving open the possibility of running again if the constitution is changed. (Editing by Kieran Murray)
BOGOTA, May 6 (Reuters) - Colombia's Congress is in crisis as scores of lawmakers are investigated for suspected collusion with right-wing death squads in a scandal creeping closer to conservative President Alvaro Uribe.
More than 60 of the country's 268 legislators are under investigation for suspected illegal dealings with drug-running paramilitaries organized as private militias in the 1980s to help landowners beat back Marxist guerrillas.
About 30 lawmakers are in prison awaiting trial and the accusations include using paramilitary thugs to intimidate voters into supporting their candidacies.
More investigations are expected, heightening worries that Congress is headed toward paralysis.
A cartoon in news magazine Semana this week showed the Congress building converted into a big jail cell.
Most of the accused are from parties loyal to Uribe, but he remains highly popular, helped by strong economic growth and successes in his U.S.-backed campaign against guerrillas and drug traffickers.
A prominent government official is calling for parties loyal to the president to be dissolved after Uribe's cousin and close political ally, Mario Uribe, was arrested last month.
"You have to ask what has happened to allow people to commit crimes while hiding behind the faith that voters have put in the president," said Luis Carlos Restrepo, Colombia's peace commissioner and a close ally of the president.
His comments were read by analysts as an attempt by the Uribe camp to distance him from the scandal-tainted Congress.
"NATIONAL SURGERY"
Both opposition and pro-Uribe lawmakers say the crisis, while painful in the short-term, will bring benefits if prosecutors go far enough in purging Congress of corruption.
"Going through surgery can be traumatic. But if there is a malignancy, you have to cut it out," said Uribe loyalist Santiago Castro, a member of the lower house.
"The paramilitary scandal is our national surgery."
Cecilia Lopez, an opposition senator, said the investigations will eventually help rather than hurt Congress's credibility.
"Even if there are only 100 members left standing, at least they will be 100 members who are clean and committed and ready to rebuild Colombia's institutions," she said.
Corruption is a big problem in Colombia, the world's top cocaine exporting country trapped in a war that began in the 1960s with the birth of left-wing guerrilla movements.
The rebels refuse to talk peace with the government.
More than 30,000 paramilitaries have turned in their guns over the last four years in exchange for benefits including reduced jail terms for crimes ranging from massacres to cocaine smuggling.
But many paramilitaries -- who formed secret alliances with politicians, rogue army officers and Colombia's business elite -- have broken the terms of the pact by refusing to cut their ties to drug trafficking.
Uribe's international standing has been damaged by the "para-political" crisis, contributing to resistance in the U.S. Congress to passing a free trade deal with Colombia.
He remains a hero to many at home although the scandal may limit his options for seeking a constitutional amendment to allow him to run for an unprecedented third term in 2010.
Uribe has named no successor and is leaving open the possibility of running again if the constitution is changed. (Editing by Kieran Murray)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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