Commanders Recast Old Militias of Colombia as Syndicates for Drugs and Ext

[Judi Lynn]

Commanders Recast Old Militias of Colombia as Syndicates for Drugs and Extortion

By JUAN FORERO
Published: March 5, 2006
PIVIJAY, Colombia — As some 23,000 paramilitary fighters have disarmed here over the last two years, their top commanders have declared their intentions to play a role in politics.

But signs are emerging that the role is a dark one, as commanders use bribery and intimidation to control local lawmakers and even blocs of representatives in the Congress while they reshape their militias into criminal networks that traffic in cocaine, extort businesses and loot local governments.

Warnings of these activities have come from sources as varied as Colombian politicians, the United Nations, Western diplomats and human rights groups. Colombia's Supreme Court has begun investigating ties between paramilitaries and Congress, and some parties have begun expelling representatives with links to the groups.
(snip)

"Some people believe that this process risks legitimizing and even institutionalizing the corrupt and illegal enterprises and the role they are playing in the economic and political life of the country," Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and ranking member of the subcommittee on foreign operations, said after visiting Colombia in December.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/international/americas/05colombia.html

[MrPrax]

1. 'Old' Militias?

I was under the impression that the para-militaries never really left and it was Uribe who merely announced some 'program' to pay-off the the more overly zealous members--they got 'retirmement' money and then re-assigned.

I think the risk of 'institutionalizing the corrupt and illegal enterprises' is long past.