Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Colombia: Odebrecht and elections

Luke Taylor reports on how The Odebrecht Corruption Scandal Is Already Shaking Up Colombia’s Presidential Vote

In August, Colombia’s Supreme Court called on President Juan Manuel Santos and several former ministers to testify about Odebrecht bribes to the Colombian government that the attorney general’s office says exceed $27 million. Investigations have already revealed that both of Santos’ election campaigns, in 2010 and 2014, received money from Odebrecht.

In December, the Democratic Center party led by Santos’ predecessor and key opposition figure, Alvaro Uribe, was also implicated when a former vice minister of transportation, Gabriel Garcia Morales, was sentenced to prison for taking $6.5 million in bribes in exchange for awarding Odebrecht a road construction contract in 2010 worth more than $1 billion. Morales has promised to testify against other Colombian officials, according to the attorney general’s office.

These scandals have discredited some of Colombia’s biggest political figures, including both the Santos and Uribe administrations, and could have significant effects on the upcoming presidential election, which will take place in two rounds in March and May.

As a result,

The fallout from Odebrecht has created the space for an unlikely leftist coalition. The image of many mainstream politicians has reached an all-time low, and polls show that corruption is currently the single biggest political issue for Colombian voters.

Taylor examines the coalition in the article.

How the elections turn out remains to be seen, but without a doubt, Odebrecht’s bribery machinery, a.k.a. the smoothly-run Division of Structured Operations, with its own hierarchy, its own accountants, and its own off-the-books communications system, called Drousys, kept a finger on the pulse of Latin American corruption.

In other election news,
FARC’s Political Party to Deploy Network of Militias throughout Colombia.

Timochenko said that the guidelines for FARC policies will be made through the creation of Tactical Units of the People throughout the country that will be responsible for spreading their propaganda in which he will collect men and women from amongst the common people.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Colombia: Just how many FARC members abandoned the peace process? UPDATED

InSight Crime raises the question, Is Colombia Underestimating the Scale of FARC Dissidence?

InSight Crime estimates that there are approximately 1,000 to 1,500 dissidents who have abandoned the peace process for various reasons, accounting for around 15 percent of the total number of FARC ex-combatants.

Many of the dissidents identified by InSight Crime have returned to their past strongholds to regain control of highly profitable criminal activities, mainly tied to drug trafficking, though there are a range of reasons why former fighters are abandoning the peace process.

The government’s numbers are fractions of the above figures.

Alvaro Uribe tweeted on a dissident FARC faction shooting at a government helicopter,

UPDATE

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Colombia: The FARC’s new year “make hay with the UN while the sun shines” party UPDATED

The FARC got everything they asked for in the US-Cuba-Vatican-sponsored “peace talks” with the Santos administration, so the New Year’s Eve party was a big shindig. Even the UN peacekeepers joined in the dancing.

As you may recall, the agreement was fast-tracked on time for Santo’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

The FARC’s New Year’s Eve celebration is narrated in emotional, dulcet tones,

U.N. staff in hot water for dancing with Colombian rebels

The U.N. mission in a statement late Monday said it would take appropriate measures.

“This behavior is inappropriate and doesn’t reflect the values of professionalism and impartiality of the mission,” it said without identifying the officials by name or nationality.

Emphasis added:

The U.N. mission is charged with receiving the weapons and providing periodic reports on the two sides’ adherence to the peace deal that seeks to bring to an end decades of bloody fighting

The same video, questioning the peacekeepers’ neutrality,

“Allegations of recruiting and prostitution in ZVTN [Zonas Veredales Transitorias de Normalización, or Transitional Pathway Normalization Zones]. How is the UN supposed to verify the allegations if it’s partying with the FARC? Neutral?”

In other reports, FARC Violate Demobilization Terms in New Year’s Bash

According to the report, some guerrillas also received visits from their relatives, including minors, which according to the agreement is prohibited. The Colombian government appeared to overlook the irregularities in the year end festivities, which featured one particularly poignant reunion of a child who had not seen his parents (both FARC soldiers) in more than two years.The party featured a barbecue, music, and even a beer, which is also technically prohibited, but was also overlooked in the spirit of the Holiday Season. To ring in the New Year, guerrillas turned in their rifles and camouflage fatigues for civilian clothes and makeovers, including manicures and new hairstyles.

Hey, I’m all for good grooming, but the terms of the agreement are foremost.

To add to the festivities, a FARC’s Frente 34 commander was touting “peace with social justice,” as reported in El Espectador.

InSight Crime reminds us about the world’s largest Communist narco-terrorist group,

The FARC are the oldest and most important guerrilla group in the Western Hemisphere. They have long financed their political and military battle against the Colombian government through kidnapping, extortion and participating in the drug trade on various levels.

Today Jay Nordlinger started a series, Colombian Plans. Here is Part 1.

Related:
Alvaro Uribe wrote about the three popes he’s met (prior post here):



UPDATE

Obama Could Pardon Extradited FARC Leader as Part of Peace Deal. Santos had previously denied agreeing to Simón Trinidad’s release, but four years ago I had posted about a possible release:

As such, it appears President Santos has been applying pressure on Washington to release the terrorist Trinidad to appease the FARC in hopes of making progress during their so-called “peace talks,” which in the past only served to embolden the terrorist group.

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Colombia: 5,000 FARC to be released from jail

Colombia approves amnesty for FARC combatants. Move will benefit estimated 5,000 former guerrillas, many in jail for political crimes

Colombia’s Congress on Wednesday took a major step forward in the country’s peace process when it approved an amnesty for former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The new law provides legal guarantees for around 5,000 ex-fighters from the guerrilla group, who will now move to holding areas from where they will start to make the transition to civilian life.

Alvaro Uribe tweets that drug trafficking will go unpunished as it falls under “political crimes:”


Additionally,

The law is seen as the key that will allow the 52-year-old guerrilla group to begin full-scale demobilization. Those accused of serious crimes, however, will have to go before a special tribunal. Even so, they will also have access to reduced sentences that will include “confinement” but not prison time.

Related:
Colombia child soldiers reluctant to leave FARC ‘family’ – rebel commander (emphasis added),

Victoria Sandino, a commander with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has a seat at the negotiating table where the government and FARC are working to revive a peace accord signed by both sides but narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum earlier this month.

She said children are wary about leaving rebel ranks.

“They don’t want to leave the organization,” Sandino told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview from Cuba where peace negotiators are gathered.

“One of the reasons they are telling us this is: ‘Well you protected us here during the fighting and the entire period of the war.”

“And now that there’s no fighting, we are expected to leave … the environment we know, the people we know, and our family because the FARC organization is a big family for all of us,” she said.

A big enslaved family, at that. Sandino stated “there are no more combatants under age 15” after the FARC released all of eight child soldiers last September.

A number that I consider as believable as the FARC’s happy family.

Post re-edited to add missing HTML.

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Colombia: Santos-Francis-Uribe meeting UPDATED

Last Friday Juan Manuel Santos and Alvaro Uribe met at the Vatican with Pope Francis to discuss the so-called peace agreement with the FARC.

“The Santos and Uribe boys, please go to the principal’s office”

It was part of Santos’s Nobel Peace Prize Victory Tour™, which so far includes pressuring the Spanish government to censor advertising billboards.

The WSJ reports,

Pope Francis Tries to Mend Colombian Rift Over Peace Accord With FARC. Pontiff holds meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos and his political rival, Álvaro Uribe (emphasis added)

The pope first held separate private meetings with each of the two men. Then the three met for an encounter in which Mr. Santos and his rival sat side by side across a desk from the pope. The arrangement was unusual because it seemed to suggest equal standing between Mr. Uribe and Mr. Santos, a head of state.

The Holy See said the pontiff “spoke about the ‘culture of encounter’ and emphasized the importance of sincere dialogue between all members of Colombian society at this historical moment.”

But it was clear that Mr. Uribe maintained his tough stance against the accord, which he says amounts to granting impunity by permitting former FARC commanders to hold 10 seats in congress.

Uribe’s correct; the current deal, redrafted on December 1 and fast tracked by the Supreme Court on December 14, legitimizes the FARC and turns it into a political power.

Francis’s spokesman said he won’t go to Colombia until the peace agreement is “bulletproof.”

Uribe spoke to the media after the meeting,

“I summarized to Pope Francis the basic elements on which there are disagreements and told him I hope they are allowed to be changed”

Among the Twitter reactions:

“After talking to Santos // After talking to Uribe”



Post corrected for HTML error.

UPDATE:
Colombian media reports that Santos wanted to discuss the peace agreement with Pope Francis. Pope Francis thought it would be a great idea, and to have Uribe join them. The Vatican sent a plane to fetch Alvaro Uribe, who flew in, attended the meeting, did not give into pressure, and flew back home right away.

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Colombia: Supreme Court “fast tracks” FARC deal

I couldn’t post on this earlier,
Colombia approves fast-track application of peace deal with FARC, granting president Santos special powers,

The peace deal was approved on December 1 by the Congress, which then proposed the fast track measure, also known as the “Special Legislative Procedure for Peace”.

The fast track procedure grants President Juan Manuel Santos, who spearheaded the peace drive, special powers to “facilitate and assure the peace agreements”, the news agency said.

It also calls for shorter or fewer legislative debates to speed up the adoption of the reform.

Former president Uribe points out (link in Spanish) that the Fast Track provision should have only come into effect if the so-called peace agreement was approved by plebiscite, which it wasn’t. He also notes that this ruling establishes a dangerous precedent, as the Supreme Court yields to pressure from both Congress and the FARC.

Santos basks in the afterglow of last week’s Nobel Peace Prize. His government wants Spain to censor billboards.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Colombia: Santos rides his Nobel Prize

He got what he was after, and now he’s free to ignore the will of the electorate:
Colombia’s President Hopes Nobel Prize Momentum Pushes Peace Deal to Finish Line

After four years of negotiations, Mr. Santos won congressional approval for the pact with the rebels last month, just weeks after voters narrowly rejected an earlier version in a plebiscite. But to fully implement a pact that gives the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, seats in congress in exchange for disarming requires constitutional reforms that must be debated and voted on by lawmakers.

That promises to take months amid stiff opposition from a former president turned senator, Álvaro Uribe, who argues that the government is selling out to a group many consider a terrorist organization.

“This is total impunity,” Mr. Uribe said in a speech Friday from Washington, where he was lobbying against the pact.

Mr. Santos said the award has given him momentum to end the Western Hemisphere’s last major conflict, an effort he called “a ray of hope” for other war-torn countries in the world.
. . .
The president could receive another boost on Monday if Colombia’s Constitutional Court gives his government “fast track” powers to quickly approve vital reforms that are in the pact. That would ease implementation of the peace deal, which calls for the FARC to convert to a political party and for the government to create a special tribunal to investigate war atrocities.

Santos gave an interview in Oslo, after which Uribe sent a press release,

Article at The Economist:

The president had promised time and again that Colombian voters would have the last say in any agreement with the FARC. But after his defeat at the polls in October, Mr Santos was forced to choose between unpalatable options. Putting the updated terms to a new referendum risked a devastating second rejection. Instead, he settled for legislative passage. That eliminated the risk of a return to war, but also meant the pact will lack the democratic reinforcement of a formal seal of approval from voters.

Santos lied.

UPDATE:
Peace Agreement? FARC Accused of Violating Ceasefire for Third Time

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