By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, March 13 (Reuters) - Interpol has launched an international manhunt for the patriarch of a conservative political clan that ran northern Colombia before it crumbled under charges of collusion with drug-running paramilitaries.

The move underscores the gravity of the "para-political" scandal in which eight of President Alvaro Uribe's congressional allies and his former intelligence chief have been arrested for suspected links to right-wing militias guilty of some of the worst atrocities of Colombia's four-decade-old guerrilla war.

Alvaro Araujo Noguera, a former congressman and agriculture minister, fled to neighboring Venezuela after his arrest was ordered this month, a spokesman for Colombia's intelligence agency, known by its Spanish initials DAS, said on Tuesday.

He is wanted on suspicion of helping the paramilitaries kidnap an opponent of his son, Sen. Alvaro Araujo Castro, in 2002.

Araujo Castro has been jailed and is awaiting trial in connection with the case. He is also charged with financing the paramilitaries, who are labeled terrorists by Washington.

The scandal also forced Araujo Noguera's daughter to resign as Colombia's foreign minister in February.

"The fact that Araujo Noguera, patriarch of the most important political clan on the northern coast, is running from the law shows how serious this scandal is," said Mauricio Romero, a member of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, which is overseeing the disbandment of thousands paramilitaries under a peace deal.

From its home base in the city of Valledupar, Cesar province, the family still wields some influence. The governor of the province is a family member.

President Uribe's former intelligence chief Jorge Noguera was charged last month with providing paramilitaries with a death list of union leaders and human rights workers.

But Uribe's popularity remains above 70 percent, according to polls that say voters like his U.S.-backed crackdown on left-wing rebels also tied to Colombia's multibillion-dollar cocaine trade.

The U.S. Congress is watching the scandal while it considers whether to approve a free trade deal with Colombia and grant more aid to the Andean country. U.S. President George W. Bush, visiting Bogota on Sunday, said he trusted justice in the case will be impartial.

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