Scandal colors Bush visit to US ally Colombia

BOGOTA, Mar 5 (Reuters) A scandal tying allies of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to paramilitary gangs has US Democrats questioning aid and trade deals days before President George W Bush meets with his closest Latin American ally.

Washington has pumped four billion dollar into ''Plan Colombia'' since 2000 to help fight the country's cocaine-fueled insurgency, but Democrats are monitoring the ''para-political'' scandal as they review a White House request for 3.9 billion dollars in new aid.

''This obviously concerns us and the American people need assurances that the government has severed links with any paramilitary terrorist group,'' said Sen Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate panel that overseas funding of Plan Colombia.

Bush stops in Bogota yesterday during a five-nation tour of Latin America as he seeks to bolster ties in a region where leftist leaders like Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez are openly hostile to his administration.

Uribe, a cattle rancher and lawyer who studied at Harvard, is an Andean odd-man-out staunchly backing US trade and drug policies. US funds have been key to reducing violence and disarming the right-wing paramilitaries who once battled Colombia's Marxist guerrillas.

But eight pro-Uribe lawmakers and a security agency chief he appointed are now jailed on charges that they colluded with militia commanders accused of atrocities during the darker days of the conflict before their peace deal with the government.

The convergence of the scandal, the new US Congress, the aid renewal and debate on approving a US free trade deal with Colombia could not have come at a worse time, but that has so far not dented Uribe's support in Washington, analysts said.

''The mood in Congress is going negative quickly. The tilt is not against Uribe so far, but against the paramilitaries,'' said Riordan Roett, Latin America studies director at Johns Hopkins University.

''Given the fact the administration has few friends in the Andean countries, he is still the strongest candidate for a face-to-face relationship,'' he said.

MURDEROUS CONFESSIONS Set up by farmers for protection from guerrillas, the paramilitaries murdered in the name of wiping out rebel sympathizers. Since 2003, Uribe has demobilized 31,000 paramilitaries after offering commanders short prison terms in exchange for confessions and compensation for victims.

US and Colombian officials say probes into paramilitary links are a natural outcome of the demobilisation and show Colombia's institutions are working. Bogota is already lobbying hard to counter any fallout in Congress.

''Of course there are concerns,'' Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos told Reuters. ''But we have to work to explain this in full detail and clarity.'' Critics say Uribe needs to do more to curb the influence of jailed paramilitary commanders who rights groups fear have kept their criminal networks active and are threatening victims seeking justice.

Rep Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said last week that Congress could seek to amend Bush's Colombia aid package to trim the military component in favor of more development funds and demand more rights guarantees from Uribe.

For years, activists charged that politicians and military officers colluded with paramilitaries, but analysts say investigations and confessions by jailed commanders could now unearth the depth of their political influence.

Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo resigned last month after her senator brother was arrested on charges he aided militias and orchestrated a rival's kidnapping. Prosecutors have ordered the arrest of her father in the same case.

Leahy and Rep Eliot Engel, New York Democrat and Western Hemisphere Affairs subcommittee member, said the paramilitary scandal would likely be among subjects debated in hearings on new Colombia aid later this year.

''I am concerned about the corruption scandals in Colombia,'' said Engel in a statement. ''Nevertheless, democracy is not neat and tidy. I am hopeful that these investigations reflect a maturing of Colombia's democracy.

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