Colombia's scandal: blessing or 2nd term "curse"
Source: Reuters
By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, Colombia, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Charges that lawmakers loyal to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are linked to right-wing militias are prompting fear among supporters at home and analysts abroad that he may follow other South American leaders whose second terms were ruined by scandal. But the political crises facing Washington-ally Uribe, in which three of his congressional allies have been arrested and more are under investigation, also holds hope that this Andean country can straighten out a political system twisted by the influence of war and cocaine trafficking. For years it was an open secret that drug-running paramilitary militias collaborated with the army to fight Marxist rebels. Together they committed some of the worst atrocities of Colombia's four-decade-old guerrilla war. "This crisis shows that paramilitary influence in Colombia goes far beyond the military dimension," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Latin American Program in Washington. "Exposing the ways that Colombia's institutions have been subverted by the paramilitaries can only be helpful to Colombian democracy over the long-run," she said. One of the arrested lawmakers is accused of being involved in a paramilitary massacre of peasants. Six other members of Congress, all from Uribe-friendly parties, were called for questioning by Colombia's Supreme court on Tuesday. The investigations have not directly touched Uribe, whose father was killed in the 1980s by left-wing rebels. He calls on critics who say he is too friendly with the right-ring militias to provide proof of any impropriety. But Uribe needs to do more to control the crisis, said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. "It is not enough to react to every revelation and remain on the defensive. He needs to be on the offensive in dismantling paramilitary influence," Shifter said. "Otherwise, he will find it difficult to muster the political capital necessary to pursue his wide-ranging agenda, and will suffer the familiar curse that has afflicted other presidents in their second terms," he added. The paramilitaries were formed as private armies in the 1980s by landowners and cocaine smugglers trying to protect their property from the rebels. More than 30,000 "paras" have turned in their guns over the last three years in a deal offering reduced jail terms. CURSE OF THE SECOND TERM Second terms have proven disastrous for other South American presidents in recent years. First elected in 2002 on promises of smashing Colombia's Marxist insurgency, Uribe easily won re-election in May. Business confidence is up, crime rates are down and Colombians are able to travel the roads with less fear of kidnap. The story resembles the early years of Peru's Alberto Fujimori and Argentina's Carlos Menem. Both were elected in times of crisis, turned their countries around and won second terms -- only to fall victim to their own grab for excessive power. Menem, initially popular for slaying hyperinflation, saw his second term bog down in corruption scandals. Fujimori, a hero for defeating Shining Path guerrillas, ended up resigning due to accusations of corruption and human rights abuses. But Colombians hope this crisis is different in that it marks a necessary step toward a cleaner political system. "I think it is very positive because the more people know about paramilitary influence the higher the chance that the situation can be corrected," said Francisco Leal, a political analyst at Bogota's University of the Andes. "What is in doubt is whether this scandal will result in a real renovation of Colombian politics," he added. "We have seen scandals before that did nothing to stop the penetration of drug traffickers and paramilitaries in our institutions."
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