"And they re-founded the country ...

[rabs]

... "How mafiosos and politicians reconfigured the Colombian State."

That is the title of a new book inaugurated at the Bogota Book Fair that ends this weekend. It is a devestating condemnation of Hillary's good friend uribe and of his regime. This only two weeks after alvarito left the scene.

The book is an exhaustive investigation by a group of Colombian authors from five institutions who conducted a three-year study of Alvaro Uribe's eight years in power.

Brief highlights:

_-- uribe had strong ties with the narco-paramilaries, enabling that mafia to become politically legitimate.

-- the narco-paramilitaires almost gained total power in Colombia.

-- the narco-paramilitaries practically "co-governed" with uribe.

-- 102 members of Congress were linked to illegal groups, five to the FARC.

-- the other 97 were linked to the armed extreme right; 25 have been convicted, 10 are being processed that the rest are under investigation.

-- the legislators linked to the paramilitaries represented 55 percent of the uribista Senate.

-- (Claudia Lopez) "Colombia, under democracy, had more disappeared, more assassinated, more human rights violations than the three dictatorships in the Southern Cone combined."

-- In 20 years of political conflict, there have been more than 31,000 disappeared and 165,000 deaths.

-- In the new Congress that was elected in March, there are 29 senators who are under investigation for "parapolitics."

More here:

http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/76945-NN/investigacion-asegura-que-gobierno-de-uribe-estuvo-fuertemente-vinculado-con-narcoparamiliatarismo/

Much more here by googling the title of the book:

Y refundaron la patria. De cómo mafiosos y políticos reconfiguraron el Estado colombiano (Debate 2010)

(edit to correct typo)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Someone here posted a notice about the Bogota book fair. Bet he had no idea what the STAR

of the show was going to be, in the end!

Spectacular. Cannot wait until more from the book sees the light of day, and gets translated to English. Of course we will have to rely on outside sources to find out more about this because the chances our own corporate media will cover this are similar to a snowball's chance in hell.

WOW! :woohoo: Thank you.

I regret I have but one recommendation to give for this news.

[pnorman]

2. K & R!

n/t

[gbscar]

3. This is a spiritual sequel to the 2007 book on parapolitics, also by López et al...

...and still available in book stores easily enough, just in case some of you might believe otherwise.

At the same time, it's worth mentioning that I think Claudia López is a very good observer and commentator of Colombian affairs, not just when she's dealing with the darker side of what is a complex reality. Too bad that's not most of what will be translated to English though but the information is out there for those who want to find it.

In addition, as she says in the teleSUR article, the role of the justice system, the press and civil society in successfully resisting the total domination of paramilitarism from coming full circle must be acknowledged. To say that the nightmare is over would be an exaggeration but there are signs that can be considered positive, in comparison to the past under Uribe and at least for the time being, even if the structural issues remain to be dealt with.