President Alvaro Uribe; Saint or Demon ?

[rabs]

(Video, Spanish with English subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjudiEXqMqI


:popcorn:

[Judi Lynn]

1. Just finished your video, after running parts of it back again several times.

Had never seen the video clip of Uribe shaking hands with the narcotrafficker, although I saw a couple of still photos. Very interesting. Also never saw a video clip of Virginia Vallejo, former girlfriend of Pablo Escobar. Also interesting. Uribe denies everything she says, of course.

Found it amusing to read in the New York Times article that he claims he bumped into narcotraffickers in his area because they came there because they were just wild for paso fino horses. Did Uribe ever consider a career in comedy? You'd think he'd really hope to do better than Jaime Garzon, wouldn't you?

http://img147.imageshack.us.nyud.net:8090/img147/5889/jaimegarzonsmsombraa260ng5.jpg

http://www.pasofinoniagara.com.nyud.net:8090/images/Paso_Fino_English.jpg

Good ol' patriotic American paso fino horses.

These two articles were mentioned in the video:


'91 U.S. Report Calls Colombian Leader Ally of Drug Lord
By JUAN FORERO
Published: August 2, 2004

A recently declassified American intelligence report from 1991 says that President Álvaro Uribe, now a staunch ally in Washington's war against drug trafficking, was at that time a close associate of Colombia's most powerful drug lord and an ardent ally of the cocaine traffickers then engulfing this country.

A spokesman for Mr. Uribe denounced the findings in the 13-year-old report, by the Defense Intelligence Agency, on Colombia's biggest drug traffickers as ''the same information'' presented in a smear campaign by political opponents in the 2002 presidential election. Senior American intelligence officials and diplomats cautioned that such reports might not be accurate. However, the statement issued by the spokesman for the president did not directly address the report's most damaging assertion: that Mr. Uribe was linked to the top drug kingpin of the era, Pablo Escobar.

The report, dated Sept. 23, 1991, and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archives, a private, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, says Mr. Uribe, then a senator from the northern state of Antioquia, was ''dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels.''

The report, which the archives is making public on Monday, calls Mr. Uribe a ''close personal friend'' of the cartel's leader, Mr. Escobar, and says Mr. Uribe took part in the drug lord's successful efforts to secure a seat as an auxiliary congressman. It said Mr. Uribe was linked to an unidentified business involved in narcotics in the United States, that as a senator he opposed extraditing traffickers to the United States and that his father, Alberto Uribe, was killed because of his drug ties.

More:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E3DF163CF931A3575BC0A9629C8B63

I remember very clearly what a Colombian living in the U.S. said about this, YEARS ago. Never forgot. I believe HIM.

~~~~~~~~~~

BLACKLIST TO THE A LIST
ONCE DEEMED A BAD GUY, URIBE IS NOW A TOP ALLY
By BY JOSEPH CONTRERAS AND STEVEN AMBRUS | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Aug 9, 2004

The declassified defense Department intelligence report, dated September 1991, reads like a Who's Who of Colombia's cocaine trade. The list includes the Medellin cartel's kingpin, Pablo Escobar, and more than 100 other thugs, assassins, traffickers and shady lawyers in his alleged employ. Then there's entry 82: "Alvaro Uribe Velez--a Colombian politician and senator dedicated to collaboration with the Medellin cartel at high government levels. Uribe was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the U.S.... Uribe has worked for the Medellin cartel and is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria." Escobar died in a 1993 police raid. Two years ago this week, Uribe became president of Colombia.

Washington loves him. In a two-page written statement, the Colombian president's office denied that Uribe had links of any kind to a U.S. business, as described in the 1991 report. (The list was obtained by the National Security Archive, an independent U.S. research group.) But the statement did not address the allegations that Uribe had worked for the Medellin cartel and was Escobar's close friend. It may be that Uribe thinks his recent actions speak louder than denials: in the last two years, Colombia has extradited 140 accused traffickers to the United States--a figure unmatched by any previous president. "This is probably one of the most pro-American presidents in Latin America's entire history," says Adam Isacson, at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

Still, questions persist. Uribe has been talking peace with outlawed right-wing paramilitaries. These groups began in self-defense against an out-of-control Marxist guerrilla movement, yet they supported themselves via the drug trade. After winning office on a pledge to stop leftist guerrillas, Uribe is now offering leniency to paramilitaries who renounce trafficking and disarm. "Some of these people don't even have anti-guerrilla credentials," says Isacson. "They're just drug traffickers who've bought their way into the paramilitary movement as a way to claim political status, legitimize their fortunes and walk free." Most Colombians seem unconcerned. With the president's approval ratings hovering above 70 percent, he's likely to get a constitutional amendment later this year to let him run again in 2006--and win.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/54793

Thanks a lot. Really great to see it. Loved the tasteful, soothing music as it ended, too. Just the right tone.

http://insidestoryflashcards.com.nyud.net:8090/printable_flashcards/images/easy/haughty.jpg

[Peace Patriot]

2. Love your photos, Judi! (--AND your comment!) You always have the RIGHT photo

for the occasion!

:applause:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Google images is the BEST invention ever! You can think of any word you want to illustrate,

put it in a search and sooner or later there's every chance you'll find a photo to give shape to the word.

I wanted to emphasize I read the music as a very clever touch to end that video. I think I read it right, I hope.

Getting the truth out here to other U.S. citizens about people like Uribe seems almost as hard as it must be trying to do the same thing living in a place with fully operational death squad killers ready 24/7 to torture and slaughter anyone who gets out of acceptable range politically.