Uribe fears 'judicial revenge' against administration

[gbscar]

Uribe fears 'judicial revenge' against administration
Tuesday, 02 August 2011 09:09
Matt Snyder

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Concerning the corruption and wiretapping investigations currently being conducted against many of the ministers of his government, Uribe insisted that they were innocent and that the charges against them were baseless.

Uribe defended former Intelligence Minister Maria del Pillar Hurtado and his former Chief of Staff Bernardo Moreno who are currently being investigated for their alleged participation in the wiretapping of Colombia's Supreme Court. Uribe also defended his former Agricultural Minister Andres Felipe Arias who is accused of diverting subsidies meant for poor farmers to wealthy families and a former beauty queen.

The ex-president said that he hoped the cases against former members of his administration would not become "false positives" a reference to a practice of the Colombian army in which innocent people are killed and then dressed in guerrilla uniforms to inflate the number of enemy combatants killed.

<...>

The former president also remarked on the tax embezzlement and health scandals that occurred during his administration and claimed that these allegations were not new, and lamented the fact that the Santos administration had chosen to make such a large "show" of their prosecution. Uribe added that while Santos has a "legitimate right" to investigate corruption, the former president claimed that when he was in power, he did not seek to embarrass the previous administration and conducted investigations quietly.

The ex-president also remarked that he had taken a great risk in his decision to disband Colombia's paramilitaries. "When I went to extradite the paramilitaries, someone told me 'Are you ready for the revenge that will come?'"

http://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18032-uribe-fears-judicial-revenge-against-administration.html

[gbscar]

1. Divided reactions to Uribe's 'false positives' claim

Divided reactions to Uribe's 'false positives' claim
Tuesday, 02 August 2011 16:13
Matt Snyder

<...>

Earlier this morning Uribe likened the corruption and wiretapping investigations against his administration to false positives, a practice of the Colombian military that involves killing innocent civilians and reporting them as guerrillas to inflate their kill count. The metaphor implies that Uribe's ministers are innocent and that the Santos administration investigations leveled against them are conducted in bad faith.

Members of Colombia's opposition party, the Polo Alternativo Democratico criticized Uribe for his comment and suggested that Uribe was attempting to erase the scandal of actual false positives that occurred during his administration.

<...>

Liberal Senator Juan Fernando Cristo said that Uribe's comments only showed that he was not pleased with what the Prosecutor General's Office was doing and noted that "it's too bad that the ex-president does not go with the national purpose."

Conservative Senator Jorge Hernando Pedraza said that Uribe's remarks were valid, but that Colombia's justice system had been working effectively on corruption problems for some time and that the current investigations were part of that process.

Members of the Partido de la U. called for unity between Santos and Uribe. Senator Roy Barreras said that "it is up to the <Partido de la U.> to bring these two national leaders together."

<...>

http://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18053-politicians-react-to-uribes-false-positives-claim.html

[Peace Patriot]

2. This little mafioso is incredibly crude.

How would you like to me the mother of one of the youngsters who were murdered by the Colombian military, under Alvaro Uribe's command, and your child's body dressed up like a FARC guerrilla, to up the military's "body count" to earn bonuses and promotions, and to impress U.S. senators to keep those billions coming?

And then have this shit use the phrase "false positive" to describe a court holding him and his cohorts accountable for their many, many crimes?

He is equating the murder of an innocent child by the state, and use of his body for money, with the status of society's most privileged people--presidents, ministers of government--having to answer for these actions.

What a twisted mind!

He reminds me of some other psychopaths we've seen in office. It's the sort of thing Rumsfeld would say, for instance. Smart-mouthed killer. Clever guy. "Made man."

I wasn't going to comment on this because it is so... diabolical. But I felt morally obliged to say something, to not let it go by. We cannot let these things go by. We can't let our minds become inured to such cold-blooded venom.

I hope they slam Uribe into prison for a long, long time--but I don't think it will happen. He is at some level of 'made man' protection and probably immune. The U.S. (Obama) government wouldn't have taken so many actions to protect him if he wasn't. It's possible they will have to jettison him, he is so dirty--not because he is dirty, but because the Colombian justice system is tenacious with courageous prosecutors and judges, who continue to go after him despite death threats from his "Black Eagles" and the constant threat of a bullet to the head, and despite all pressures--of the kind we see so much of, here--to immunize the powerful, no matter how heinous their crimes (murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, torture, theft on an unimaginable scale). i'm sure there are quite a few power players, here and there, who have tried to exert such pressure on Colombia's prosecutors and judges ('go along/get along"), in addition to the death threats and probable bribery efforts. It's because of them--not because it's just and right--that those protecting Uribe, including the U.S. government, may have to sacrifice him. I think he knows things about Bush Junta complicity in his crimes and his criminal network which I why he is so arrogant. He thinks he's untouchable. He may be. We'll have to see.

I just wanted to say that I feel the knives going into the mothers of these victims and other victims of Uribe's crime wave in Colombia, and into their other family members and friends, and community. This is a particularly heinous knife he is sticking into them.

"False" (they were not armed, they were not guerrilla fighters, they were just kids, innocent kids) "positives" (they were shot, beaten to death, hacked up, and their bodies thrown on a pile or into a mass grave, to rot, as an achievement of the Uribe administration and his military, funded with $7 BILLION in "aid" from U.S. taxpayers).

False.

Positives.

---------------------------------

:grouphug:

[gbscar]

3. I didn't initially comment either, but to say the least that gross disparity also caught my eye (nt)

[rabs]

4. On the surface, Santos is still being polite with Uribe

but reading between the lines, the rupture appears to be complete as the various scandal nooses get tighter around Uribe's "cogote."

You may have seen Santos' remark published yesterday in the Bogota media in which he said that he was "not going to fight" with Uribe. This after Uribe made the outlandish claim that he (Uribe) had been the "elector" that put Santos in the presidency last year.

The uribistas must be frothing at the mouth, as Santos adopts a "I am above this" stance.

So far the scandals date back to the uribistas, but this week is the one-year anniversary of Santos' presidency. Suspect that one of these days some scandal is going to be uncovered and will be pinned on the Santos administration.

The revelation by Vivanne Morales last week that eight billion dollars is being laundered annually in Colombia comes to mind.